Everybody Wants to Rule the World
by Lapis Love
Summary: Long thought to be dead Bonnie Bennett ends up in Louisiana with no memory and in the care of Elijah Mikaelson. She's not the witch he remembers, she's something more. Whether that something more means good or bad things is yet to be determined. Will Elijah resist temptation or be a servant at Bonnie's feet. Surely Damon Salvatore will have something to say about that. Post 5x22 AU
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: It's not my first Bonlijah fic, and I'm feeling kinda needy. Conventional methods of crackshipping kinda bore me so I did a thing. I started another post-5x22 fic and wanted to continue but then realized some of the ideas I had…let's say great minds in the Bamon fandom think alike. So I've concocted another approach in this 3-part series I plan to finish this week as my own challenge. If I doesn't happen all well. All I can do is try. Enjoy.**

Disclaimer: I disclaim ownership of characters associated with TVD. The plot bunnies and their zaniness belong to me. Copyright infringement is not intended.

* * *

Staggering. Horns blaring. Objects in the road swerving to avoid plowing into her. Lights blinded her that even covering her eyes did little to lessen the sting. Her naked feet pounded the hard asphalt as she frantically searched around for something though she had no real idea what it was she was inherently seeking. Self-preservation demanded she get someplace safe, but really was anywhere safe in this large, unrecognizable world?

Water from the blackened sky poured on her head and made it almost impossible to see straight. The noises, the smells they were all so distracting she couldn't decide which direction to go. But then she found herself questioning if she even understood the basic principles about direction.

If there was a place she wanted to be, she simply thought of the place and she was there. Here, the weight of the air seemed oppressing making it that much harder to move. When she pulled air into her lungs it stung and made her cough. It had a taste she didn't like, and it served to only make her more confused about where she was.

Her footsteps faltered and she slipped, but caught herself. Her hand broke her fall and the pain that shot up her arm lodged itself deep within her gums. She gritted against the pain, fought the urge to cry, and pushed herself back to her feet. She shuffled forward on wobbly, unstable legs.

"Please…" her breath a cloud on the air. "Someone help me."

She spoke those words only because she had heard them before. Many times, now that she thought about it. Remembered. But the memory didn't seem to come from her, but from someone else telling her about their experience. A second-hand knowledge translated into her own thoughts.

The loud noises continued, and she slapped both hands over her ears to suppress the uproar. It didn't help. She could still hear the echo and it made her teeth stand on end. How could anyone deal with this level of cacophony and not go mad?

The water from up above refused to relent for even a second. It drenched her from skin to bone. Her once modest attire had now become transparent, and since she wore nothing underneath she was showing more than anyone needed to see.

Her head throbbed and there was a funny, indistinguishable taste in the back of her throat. Metallic like rust and thicker than saliva.

Blood? The image abounded inside her mind but the concept of the fluid escaped her.

She stopped moving. Limbs stiffening in the cold temperature. Shivers soon racked her elfin frame and she was forced to cover herself with her thin arms. It did little to generate any warmth.

"Get out of the road!" a man yelled that made her jump and sob.

She needed help not to be chastised. She didn't know where she was, or _who _she was for that matter.

No—a voice in the dark abyss of her mind corrected. No, that's not true. You know who you are, but most importantly _what _you are. Only this isn't your world.

The thought alone scared her beyond reasoning. If she was not in her world then where exactly was she? And how exactly did she get here?

_Think. Think—think, _she urged her brain to provide answers that for the moment it wanted to keep locked away for its own selfish motives.

She shivered again and this time she became noticeably aware that something translucent, at least to a specific species eyes, moved and quivered right along with her.

Enthralled with the rows of ivory quills, she reached out to touch one to see if it were in fact real, and as she did so they expanded to each side of her, extending in length at least by seven feet if she had to take an educated guess.

_Come closer_, she thought and the quills encased her protectively. She was in awe but also terrified because she didn't know what this meant or what this made her exactly. Vaguely she knew she hadn't been like this before.

Tires screeching along the wet asphalt drew her attention. When she spun around, the quills on each side of her expanding again, she was greeted to another bright light and the brightness of the light sparked a memory.

It faded before it could form fully but she had caught a glimpse of something. Trees. Earth and pine needles under her feet. A man.

She held her hands out as if that might stop the impact of her body ramming into the unknown surface of the weird object. Lucky for her, the object stopped a foot away from her legs. It radiated some kind of heat that made her already puckered skin become even pimplier.

A side of the object opened and then a dark silhouette rose from it. The girl took a step back.

The person moved closer, moving with a swiftness and agility she had nebulously remembered seeing before. Shadows on top of shadows seemed to conceal the identity of the person which renewed her terror.

"Please…" she backed away.

"Miss Bennett?"

The voice though spoken with softness belied something else. Astonishment? Confusion? Opportunity?

Who was Miss Bennett? The girl was certain no one else was teetering on the side of the street but her.

It was difficult to stare up at the man because of the high beam lights of his weird object stabbing her retina. But when he stepped closer making his features more plain she had to say they matched the attractive timbre of his voice.

She blinked. He blinked.

"Miss Bennett…what are you doing walking in the middle of the street during a thunderstorm? And most importantly…how are you alive?"

She blinked but this time her eye movement was followed up with an expression of profound dubiousness.

Had she not been alive all this time?

Brunet eyes roamed over her person freely and if she had to say—improperly. His gaze was assessing but she noted no cruelty or lasciviousness in his perusal. Could it be because he saw her wings, too?

Elijah Mikaelson had no idea what to make of this. Here stood before him a completely drenched Bonnie Bennett, the former anchor of the Other Side who should have perished with its destruction. Yet she was alive, seemingly, and clearly had no recollection of who he was which made it safe to assume she was clueless about her own identity as well.

She was miles away from home dressed in a gown made of some fabric that shimmered whenever her body twitched. If Elijah still had the wherewithal to blush his cheeks would have been rosy pink because…he could see _everything. _

Slowly, he removed his suit jacket and held it out in front of him. "Would you allow me to cover you up? You're freezing."

Bonnie stood conflicted. She very much wanted to get warm, very much needed help, but she didn't know this man. Still, he was the only soul who had been kind enough to stop and assist her and her poor head was throbbing, and her feet were blistered and aching. Accepting this kindness would ease her trouble if only for a little while.

Curtly she nodded and stiffened when the kind stranger stepped even closer and wrapped his garment around her shoulders.

Bonnie grabbed the labels to keep the coat in place and pushed strands of her hair away from her face.

"Thank you," she offered in a language Elijah had not heard in over a thousand years.

That left him speechless but he did manage to incline his head.

Questions began to horde and petitioned to be released from his mouth first, but he held off. Getting her somewhere safe was tantamount to his own burning curiosity of how the witch of Mystic Falls landed in Lafayette, Louisiana. How she came back from the dead—twice; an admirable feat he couldn't deny, but what this would mean for the world at large?

One thing at a time, though.

Elijah understood he was the last person Bonnie Bennett would accept sanctuary from. After all, she did try to kill him and he had gotten his revenge, so to speak, by issuing an ultimatum that led to her mother being turned into a vampire. It was the once honorable nobleman in him and maybe even his conscience that prompted him not to leave her abandoned on the side of the road. He might be a creature of the damned; he couldn't let Bonnie fall into the wrong hands.

Stretching out his hand toward his idling vehicle he smiled, "Please will you come with me and I'll take you somewhere warm and safe for the night?" his Aramaic was a little rusty.

There was no flicker of a warning going off in her head telling her she shouldn't. Her alternative options were limited, and someone with such a handsome face would not mean her any harm, right?

"Thank you," she whispered softly.

Elijah stepped aside then followed Bonnie to the passenger side of his Mercedes. He opened the door for her, and she hesitantly slid into the seat.

Once he shut the door his cell vibrated. He quickly walked to the driver side and climbed behind the wheel all the while digging his phone out of his pocket.

He answered, "Yes, brother I'm back in the states but my return to New Orleans has to be postponed." Pause. A heavy sigh. Suck of the teeth. "Can someone honestly go one night without planning your death in a coup? I'll be there when I've settled another matter. You're immortal. Killing you is almost impossible, so you'll be fine," Elijah smiled and ended the phone call.

"Immortal?"

Bonnie's voice snapped Elijah back to the situation at present.

"I will explain," he shifted the car into drive and pulled away from the curb. "Later. Tell me, what do you remember?"

His question went unanswered because something else began to plague the mind of the young woman.

That word immortal gave way to another burst of memory. A person had stared into the bright light with her? Immortal. He had been one? Or they were immortals together?

If she had not come here alone…where was he if he was not here with her right now?

TBC.

**A/N: What exactly is Bonnie? Why is she in Louisiana? Where's Damon? What's going on? Your guess is as good as mine. Thanks for reading, kittens. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hi everybody! Okay so clearly I didn't come anywhere near to reaching my goal of wrapping this one up in a week. The scale of the story is much too big to be contained to only 3 chapters so I'm going to expand it. How long will it be, I have no idea. I'm just going to write and write when I can until it's finished. Here is the latest. You know what to do and THANK YOU so much for the awesome reviews and eagerness to see where I'm gonna take this! **

Disclaimer: These characters (with the exception of OC's they belong to me) are the creative property of LJ Smith/The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

They were not as they seemed. They disagreed on matters surrounding life and death but shared the same accord: it had to get done. Their arguments, their interactions all seemed to be specifically timed and consciously spaced out, and sometimes maybe even blown out of proportion. A single word could make or break a treaty, and the principalities which governed them never for once let either of them forget their place.

Forces beyond either of their control made sure they were never friends, confidants. At best they were frenemies. At worst doomed chess pieces being shuffled along the game board of someone else's life.

He never hated her. He just didn't like her. They bumped heads, but they never had to walk away and go to their respective corners. Other than that one time. They had created their own myth, their own legend, and they had done it again.

It took dying in order for him to feel like he was finally living.

He saw her for who she truly was and during the process discovered who _he_ really was.

Weightlessness consumed him and fire surrounded him. There was no oxygen here but he didn't need to breathe anyways. Darkness was endless, the cold unfathomable, but the heat exploding on the outer ridges of his consciousness was a pointless wake-up call that he was not dead.

Quite the opposite. He was alive. Alive and free falling after being Leonidas kicked from a place he knew he never should have went to in the first place.

They never wanted him there, never let him forget that it was by her grace and her grace alone why he had been given the benefit of the doubt. The suspicion they had for him never tampered off. Never budged a single inch. Years passed and they never let him forget he was an intruder.

Despite their numerous ways to break him he never succumbed to the pressure. Iron sharpened iron and they were each other's iron. So long as she was around, so long as they were together, nothing could break either one of them.

He could hear her screams in his ear. An echo loud and painful enough that had him crying out, reaching out toward her outstretched hand. There was nothing he could do to stop his descent.

The fear, the pain etched deeply within the beautiful bones of her face was the last thing he recalled. Clearly. She screamed his name and without thinking, flung herself after him.

"NOOO!" he yelled. What the hell was she doing? If she fell she wouldn't be able to get back. If she fell she would be doomed. At least that was the law. Once you were _there _one couldn't leave and the only way to "leave" was if the Seniores declared someone expelled from the realm.

He was expelled. He was thrown out. She should have stayed behind and not waste her chance at perfect peace on him. He wasn't worth it.

He had no idea where he was going. Where he was being cast like dye. He had to make it to her so they could end up somewhere together.

But the speed at which he was falling was too fast. She wouldn't be able to catch up.

Slowly his eyes sealed shut.

Down on the bottom where the sky touched the ground a little girl looked up after collecting her dolls and stuffing them in her stroller. The sun was going into hiding like her dad explained to her when she questioned why the sun decided to disappear every day.

Something like a comet streaked across the cobalt and orange sky causing her to gasp sharply, forget her task, and walk further into the backyard.

"A shooting star," she whispered in awe. She shut her eyes and made a wish because that's what you were supposed to do whenever you saw a shooting star.

Maybe she wouldn't have to wait on Santa Claus to bring her that puppy she's been hinting she's wanted since her birthday.

By the time he stopped falling through space was the same moment his body slammed through rock—a mountain if he had to make an educated guess. There were tiers of pain. From stubbing your toe on something hard, to a paper cut, a gunshot, a stab wound, a broken bone, smacking your head on concrete, none of that compared to what went through him the second he made contact with an immovable object.

He smashed through ancient rock, crashed through sedimentary earth, and kept falling until he was sure he would head straight for the core of whatever planet he just landed on.

Loud expletives roared through his mouth though he was positive he hadn't actually widened his jaw to speak. Bones were broken and instantly healed. Blood poured from wounds that stitched themselves back together straightaway. This was pain at its finest.

When he stopped moving he landed in a small stream.

"Ugh, fuck, damn."

The perfect way to sum up everything that had happened within the last two hours. Or less. Or more.

When he cracked open his eyes he saw nothing but pitch darkness, maybe a flicker of light some twenty yards away. Maybe. Or maybe that was just a phantom light bursting behind his closed lids as a result of breaking every vertebra in his spine.

Breathing harshly, blinking the dust out of his eyes, his chest heaved up and down rapidly, and he just lied there half in a stream, half on a rock bed.

Moving right now was not even an option. But he had to get moving. He had to get up and find her. If he didn't, he knew _they _would.

Water lapped around his body. He was impossibly thirsty but in no shape to move, not even to flip over and taste the cool brook that surrounded him.

The veil of unconsciousness unfortunately began covering him and he found it impossible to fight. Resisting was futile and just this once he gave in, but not before saying her name.

"…Bonnie…"

* * *

**Year One…**

_She was crying in her sleep. _

_Damon allowed the soft whimper to draw his gaze away from the picturesque landscape in front of him. He looked over his shoulder at the prone body lying in the center of the bed, curled in on itself as if trying to shield it from harm. His brow furrowed and he wondered if Bonnie were having a nightmare. _

_For two seconds he warred on what to do. He wasn't big on doling out comfort to anyone. He was inept in that department because typically he struck out to hurt people. Not to wipe tears away with the pads of his thumbs, or rock someone, hold them—only if he intended to kill them. Perhaps his "training" with Elena might come in handy, and this place was too perfect for Bonnie to have any fears. _

_Decision made, he turned and entered the peristyle walking straight over to the bed. _

_The furrow marring his brow deepened as he saw her apparently fighting something in her dreams. Kneeling on the bed, he slid his hand over the white duvet and curled his around the one tucked beside her head. _

_The second their palms touched Bonnie's eyes snapped opened. Methane-blue orbs gawked at her curiously and at the last second she noticed the bridge of her nose and cheeks were wet._

"_What's wrong?" she croaked._

"_I was just about to ask you that. I think you were having a bad dream."_

_There was no thinking about it. She had been having a bad dream only it wasn't a figment of her imagination, but a memory of her not-too-long ago painful past. _

_Sitting on the edge of the bed and not releasing her hand, Damon asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"_

_Quickly Bonnie shook her head. That part of her life was over. She was free now. The days of being overwhelmed by supernatural strangers were caput. _

_Intrinsically, Bonnie knew that but her mind had yet to accept it. _

"_I guess," she cleared her throat. "I'm still expecting this place to disappear only to come to find out we're all are trapped in a lab somewhere being mind-raped."_

_Damon snorted. "That actually happened to me…along with being tortured."_

_Ah, Bonnie thought. "The Augustine Experiment."_

_That was one topic of discussion neither of them had, at least not with each other. Damon wasn't looking to change that at present. Bonnie didn't appear as if she wanted deets, either. That was one other thing about Judgey he liked. She didn't pry if it had nothing to do with magic and how to use it to kill someone._

_Why had he given her such a hard time again? _

_Both of them were kind of unaware they were still holding hands. It seemed so natural there didn't seem to be a point to make light of it thereby making it weird._

_Damon did, however, slide down on the bed to lie flat on his back. Bonnie moved over a little to give him more space._

"_I have a feeling that if we don't talk about our issues they might boil over," Bonnie proposed._

_Damon smirked. "Then you should go first since your life span is a tad shorter than mine."_

_The young woman laughed and sobered. "How badly do you miss home?"_

_Strumming his free fingers on his chest, Damon's mouth pulled down at the corners. "On a scale from one to ten with ten being giving away a vital organ…then I'm in serious need of some major transplants." –Bonnie smiled and nodded in understanding—"Mystic Falls had always been that place that straddled the line between heaven and hell. It's where you know everyone and they know you, but then there are a disturbing amount of things designed to kill you. You want to write it off, but something keeps you tethered there. You form relationships and bonds and the next thing you know you're stuck playing at something you've never been."_

"_Is that how you honestly feel about yourself?"_

_Damon lifted his head off the bed and stared at Bonnie horrified because he purged without fully meaning to. He damn near forgot he had been talking to her. _

_Bonnie propped herself up on her elbow. "You saw yourself playing at something you weren't?"_

"_Come on! You know I did. How many times was my arm twisted to do the right thing?" Damon flipped on his side facing Bonnie and that shrunk the space between them. "My instinct is not to save a life. I can write a dissertation on the joys of killing. But then…giving people an out by rescuing them or showing that annoying thing called mercy sort of became my occupation. Being a hero was your thing. Not mine."_

_Bonnie considered his words before speaking. _

"_Here's an interesting thing about me," she licked her lips and Damon's eyes dipped to her mouth for a second before shooting back to her eyes. "Some of the things I did when I was a witch…I never saw them as heroic. But as the right thing to do. Maybe that is heroic, I don't know. _

"_Intervening when fate should have taken its course only cost me in the end. It was stupidity, I can see that now. Yes, I love my friends and I lost all scruples in making sure they stayed alive and were happy, but who's happy? I was for a time but…" her throat tightened and Bonnie stared at a point over Damon's shoulder. "But being a hero I think is better suited for those who don't have anything left to lose."_

"_When did you become so deep and reflective?" Damon teased._

"_You have Intro to Philosophy to thank for that," Bonnie yawned and then her lids drooped. _

"_You're exhausted. Go to sleep. We have a busy day tomorrow."_

"_I know. Are you at all…nervous?"_

_Damon scoffed. "No."_

_Bonnie pursed her lips. She didn't believe him. "If you say so."_

"_I do say and I'm saying again, go to sleep."_

_She didn't need to be told for a third time._

_Damon didn't move until Bonnie's breathing evened out. Letting go of her hand took some doing, but he did and rose from the bed feeling a suspicious flutter in his chest while he watched her sleep. _

"_You won't get under my skin, Bennett. You won't fit."_

* * *

**Lafayette, Louisiana**

Tried as he might to keep his eyes on the road, Elijah Mikaelson wasn't doing a very good job. Thankfully after a thousand years of living, his five natural senses were so honed he could detect when danger was approaching. And those censors of his were firing, but the danger had nothing to do with the luxury vehicle he was driving drifting over into incoming traffic. No. Those censors were telling him he was transporting something he needed to get very far away from.

Soon. Now. Hurry it up.

Elijah refused this, labeling his unease as absurd. A wet and shivering barely twenty year old girl who by all accounts should be dead shouldn't have raised his hackles as much as they were at present. But it wasn't hard to see something was off about Bonnie Bennett, memory loss notwithstanding. And it was driving Elijah a little insane he couldn't put his finger on the problem.

His history with the girl was…brief. Memorable but brief. They never had a direct one-on-one conversation during his short-lived tenure in Mystic Falls. Bonnie and her mother had played an integral part in releasing his mother from the spelled coffin Klaus carried her around in. Elijah who had searched for his kin for half a millennium should have been happy, should have felt grateful that Bonnie in her own way had given him his ultimate wish in reuniting his family. However, his senses once again foretold impending trickery and he turned out to be tragically right.

How he behaved, what he did, the ultimatum he issued that resulted in a young girl losing her mother for the second time in her life sickened him. And the fact he never even apologized to her about it…Elijah swept those thoughts away, but the feeling remained. That feeling of self-loathing slammed into him as he once again found his curious garnet orbs staring at Bonnie who hadn't blinked since entering the car.

He was desperate to know what was on her mind, but first he needed to figure out what to do with her.

Bonnie was speaking fluent Aramaic. She was hurt. He could smell the heady and potent aroma of her life's blood, and knew it was coming from a wound on her head. She must have fallen and injured herself that way and the blow seemingly affected her memory.

Elijah's gut was telling him he needed to contact someone in Mystic Falls. He remembered her father was dead—murdered by Silas. Abby was the most obvious person for him to reach out to, but Elijah didn't need to be psychic to know she wouldn't be receptive of hearing from him. She would clearly have to make an exception in this case.

He wasn't too sure what became of her friends in Mystic Falls since Traveller magic stripped the town of witch magic making it inhospitable to the supernatural. Plus, with his hands being tied with a million different things he couldn't really spare the time worrying about the movements of insignificant immortals and their never-ending teenaged drama.

So as it stood, Elijah would have to find some way to contact Abby and deliver the news her daughter was alive _again, _but that something was seriously wrong with her.

Elijah continued to drive east to the one place he knew would be safe for Bonnie in Lafayette.

"We're almost there," he announced in English. He felt the weight of her eyes on him and when he stared at her, she stared back uncomprehendingly. So Elijah reiterated his sentiments in Aramaic.

"Where?" had been her automatic response.

"Somewhere safe, dry, and hopefully warm."

"Why are you…doing this?"

"Doing what?" Elijah's hand unconsciously tightened on the wheel.

"Helping me."

"You're hurt," the Original stated matter-of-fact. "You needed assistance. You're a long way from home."

Home, the word sounded ominous to Bonnie for some inexplicable reason. She couldn't really picture home. It was too vast, the area too great, the environment too cold. It had been filled with pain, yes? A tremendous amount of pain that seemed to have no end. Wherever this place 'home' was the kind man had been referring to, Bonnie knew without a doubt she didn't want to go back there.

Still, she couldn't override the sense that…she was missing something vital. Every time she tried to remember her thoughts slid away like sand pouring out of a vessel. She couldn't grab on to or make sense of anything. Not a grain of truth in sight for her to devour. Her head was throbbing, she was freezing, and this weird contraption she was sitting in was making her nervous as it competed for room with other weird things. Bonnie wanted to be out in the open, out of this confined space.

She closed her eyes and another uncomfortable sensation rolled through her causing her eyes to spring open. Though she was not alone she felt terribly alone. A fresh batch of tears sprung to her eyes and she began to weep softly.

_Bullocks, _Elijah thought. Crying women were his ruination. A confused and disoriented woman he could handle. But a confused, disoriented, _crying_ woman made him unnervingly inadequate.

"It'll be all right," he did his best to calm Bonnie down. "We're almost there."

Bonnie continued on having not heard him. Was there no one else in this place other than this nice man who could…she didn't really know what she wanted or really expected. Bonnie just wanted answers but what were the questions she needed to ask?

To Elijah's relief they were approaching his safe house. He made the turn off the two lane highway on to a muddy stretch of road that led to a three story brick house. The entire front façade of the house was covered with thick vines that were usually kept neatly trimmed as not to block the windows, but in their neglect had taken completely over. Hopefully the place had working electricity and water since it had been a few years since he came to this place, but he had entrusted this house to the human descendants of his favorite witch.

Pulling the car right up to the bottom step, Elijah in a flash was on Bonnie's side of the car, the heavens still pummeling him and soaking his clothes. Snatching the passenger side door open and unfortunately startling Bonnie, he apologized and then swept her up into his arms and then on to the porch.

He didn't have keys so Elijah had to break the lock. The door opened on rusted hinges that groaned.

Entering the house, he kicked the door closed with his foot, crossed over to the parlor and sat Bonnie down on a couch. He moved around quickly in a blur flicking lights and cursing each time nothing happened.

"I'll be right back. I'm going to try to find the oil lamps. There's no power."

Bonnie sat ramrod straight on the couch too petrified to move. She began murmuring to herself as a distraction. The darkness moved around her turning into indistinguishable shapes and they were diverging on her, coming closer. She pierced her eyes closed.

Elijah was back carrying two lit oil lamps. He saw the terror stricken expression on the young woman's face as he placed one lamp on a table next to the window. Ignoring that for the time being, he headed over to the fireplace knowing it was a huge risk to start a fire without the chimney being properly cleaned, but he had little choice.

Bonnie shifted a bit and watched the nice man as he picked a log out of the fireplace, inspected it—for what she wasn't sure—blew dust off of it, and then tossed the other lamp inside causing the wood to ignite.

Looking up, jade eyes were observing his apparently strange actions. A ghost of a smile brightened Elijah's face, and he held out a hand toward Bonnie.

"You should come closer to the fire so you can get warm."

She stood up, released her hold on the jacket. It fluttered to the floor, but Bonnie didn't move. The material of her dress clung to her in places that would entice any man to look and never look away. And Elijah would blame the sudden heat racing through him on the orange-red flames dancing in the fireplace and nothing else.

Finally remembering who _she _was and who he was, he turned his gaze away.

Bonnie approached and winced with every step she took. Her feet. They were bare and cold and they were bleeding. She stopped walking.

"What's the matter?" Elijah swiftly rose to his feet.

Bonnie made a vague motion to her feet and it didn't take Elijah long to figure out what the latest problem was.

He moved fast without really thinking and since Bonnie was taking everything in stride so far, he had no qualms about utilizing his preternatural speed. In all of two seconds he had positioned an arm chair right in front of the fire, deposited Bonnie on it, then raced through the house looking for medical supplies.

To their fortune the house had running water so the electricity must have been knocked out by the storm. The house came equipped with a gas stove and he fired up a burner and steamed a kettle full of water.

As it heated, Elijah whipped out his cell phone and wondered who he should call first. If Niklaus found out Bonnie was alive he would demand he bring her to him. And Klaus was the absolute last person she needed to be around considering she was not in her right mind. His little brother would only try to take advantage of that. Elijah didn't trust any witches in the Quarter so they were out. No, he would have to handle this on his own and invite no third party into the mix. It was the least he could do for Bonnie. Keep her secret of her being alive a secret.

The whistle of the kettle killed his musings.

He was back in front of his charge with an old fashioned porcelain basin filled with warm water, alcohol, ointment, scissors, tweezers, and gauze bandage.

Wordlessly Elijah placed both of Bonnie's feet into the warm water one foot at a time. She hissed but otherwise made no other sound of complaint. The bottom of her feet was riddled with cuts and scrapes, and a piece of glass had been imbedded within the arch of her right foot to which the Original removed.

When he looked up at Bonnie she saw a flash of another man's face materialize for a second. His eyes were…blue…no…green…no that's not right! They had to be blue. She didn't know why but something within her tugged that the color of the man's eyes were blue. But what had happened? Why had he been kneeled down in front of her? And he…kissed her hand? With some expression on his face. Mischievousness?

No, her tired and overworked mind had to be making this up. She knew no one and nothing. Other than she was far from wherever she was supposed to be.

Bonnie rubbed her eyes and felt another crying spell coming on again, but she swallowed it back down. "I don't think I'm supposed to be here."

Hearing her speak captivated Elijah's attention. "Are you remembering something?"

She shook her head and stopped rubbing her eyes which had grown considerably redder.

"Do you remember anything, Bonnie?"

"That's my name? Bonnie?"

Slowly Elijah nodded.

"How do you know me? Why can't I remember you? Why can't I remember anything?"

The last question had been spoken with a burst of anger and outside thunder clapped loudly and shook the house.

Maybe that could be written off as coincidence? Doubtful.

Elijah lifted his hand and brushed the hair away from her forehead and saw an abrasion there. Bonnie jerked away at the contact and ducked her head.

"I don't know why you are here," Elijah began, "but it must be for some reason. And whatever that reason is…it's locked away inside here," he gently brushed his knuckles along her temple.

A soothing sensation coursed through Bonnie like an injection and all of her muscles immediately relaxed and she fell back against the chair.

The sound of the rain pelting the rooftop made Bonnie drowsy and it was becoming more and more difficult to keep her eyes open.

They lowered and lowered until finally they closed. Elijah studied her for a moment taking note of how young Bonnie looked despite living through several lifetimes worth of pain.

He cleaned and dried her feet and came up short when he noticed that all of her abrasions and cuts had already healed. Frowning, he flicked his gaze between the slumbering girl and her squeaky clean feet.

Had she unconsciously healed herself? There was still the cut along her hairline to contend with. So….

Wetting a piece of gauze with a fresh batch of warm water, Elijah swept it along the cut but nothing happened.

"You are quite the enigma, Miss Bennett."

* * *

The pulse of electromagnetic energy that flew out of the bottom of his staff once it made contact with the metal ground, made those surrounding him cower as they felt their powers draining.

Tendons fully extended on the side of his neck, hands balled tightly into fists, he yelled. _"I WANT HER BACK! GO AFTER HER!" _

Only one person was brave enough to draw closer. "You know we cannot. As soon as we leave this place we'll suffer the same fate as she," a dry laugh unintentionally escaped and earned him a withering glare for his insolence. "You cast him out and he will be the only one able to bring her back. And sometimes tells me, he won't."

Breathing heavily, Avitus shouted, "Then find me a principality that will go down there and bring her back."

Still no one moved to carry out his order.

The brave one who spoke before did so again. Titus stared his brother down. "You know the principalities only deal with mortals. She is no mortal."

"And that's precisely why she needs to return posthaste. Now! Before the Dark Ones sense her power."

"Then leave it up to her herald to bring her back, if he can, since it's been established he is the only one she listens to. I warned you about this, and you didn't listen. You may be wise, but you don't know everything," Titus slipped away and he motioned for the others to follow suit.

Alone with his thoughts Avitus searched the innumerable heavens and galaxies. _Reckless_ he muttered stonily.

"I bend the rules…make a place for her in this world and she brings luggage…of the worst kind."

A spirit to his right, right out of his peripheral vision began to form, but Avitus didn't turn to acknowledge the being.

"I told you she was a handful."

Avitus scoffed.

"But she's worth the trouble."

"We'll see," he muttered darkly.

Chapter end.

**A/N: What exactly is Bonnie? Where exactly is Damon? Why was he expelled from wherever he and Bonnie where? When will home girl get her memories back, will she ever get them back? And who are the Dark Ones? Guesses, opinions, feedback of any kind? Thanks for reading, loves. Until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Okay, all I have to say is WOW! I really did not anticipate this story would be as popular as its turning out to be, and it's a little scary because I don't want to screw anything up. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, added to your lists! I can't say I'm all that happy with this chapter because there are SO many directions I can take things. But I'll let you all be the judge. Thank you again!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW. All original characters belong to me, and the plot is mine as well. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**Outer Realm**

Uther was visibly upset. He wouldn't stop his maddening pacing and if anyone drew near, his back would arch, he'd crouch to the ground, and snarl revealing his canine teeth. The dog was as intelligent as a scholar since he had been bred that way to think, make snap decisions most would have to sit and brood over. His mistress and master were gone and he _knew _it, and was heavily displeased by it.

He trained those darkening amethyst eyes on Titus almost accusingly—no they were accusing. The man held up both hands in surrender and took a step back.

"Easy, Uther."

The dog barked, loudly, and growled. He tapped one pawed foot on the ground, his nails striking the marble floor that began to grit on Titus' nerves.

Uther could sense his irritation and unease and it made him huff proudly. He hadn't lost it. His ability to strike fear in a man's heart, a man by all definition was immortal. His sweet mistress was gone. As well as his imprudent master whom Uther would say he had grown to like because the man hardly followed rules, and always snuck him treats though it was forbidden to deviate from his usual meal plan. Uther did not care what they had done. He wanted them back!

He trotted over to Titus keeping his body low to the ground, preparing to launch if need be. Though attacking Titus could spell big trouble for him, he had seniority around these parts. They wouldn't dare touch him and throw him into the kennels with the other misfit four-legged beasts.

Maybe some of his master's disregard for humbleness rubbed off on him.

Titus held his ground refusing to let the sleekly muscular dog intimidate him. With one command Uther would have to obey him. Even regardless of his personal feelings on the matter. Employing purebreds came with stipulations and limits. They were their own beings, but were some of the fiercest and loyal dogs known in any galaxy. Be good to them and they in turn were good to you.

Uther had taken an immediate liking to his mistress despite being settled in his canine ways. So he had been assigned to be her night guard, a post Uther took seriously. No one could even pass down the hall where his domina's bedchamber was located without literally being sniffed within an inch of one's life, or getting the third degree, or receiving an optical interrogation.

He was a good dog.

Uther stopped his prowling when only a foot of space separated him from Titus. They glared at one another.

"I know you miss her."

Uther barked.

"But you're going to have to accept that she may never come back. She won't remember you. She won't remember anything. Maybe not even the life she had before she came here. I'm sorry, Uther."

A rumbling started in the dog's chest but then the sound was cut off and exchanged for a pitiably whine.

Titus kneeled down to his haunches and tentatively extended a hand toward the pup. Although Uther was twenty-seven years old, he was still considered a puppy in comparison to his betters. His own mutt Iorgos was nearing his hundred and fifth birthday.

Uther didn't draw any closer. But he did allow Titus to stroke his head, and scratch behind his ears. Nonetheless, in a nanosecond he was back to growling and barking and took off down the hall becoming a blur of movement.

Titus watched the dog go, shook his head, and stood to his full height.

This dominion wasn't without its fair share of controversy, but probably nothing of this magnitude placed the citadel in such unrest that many were looking for a solid way out of what was sure to come next. What they should realize was that no matter where in the universe they decided to hide, it would never be far enough to escape _his _wrath should he ever become aware of the events which just passed.

Titus already had a hunch he knew and would soon grace them all with his apocalyptic presence. He would be the first to say he was not looking forward to it.

He eased the door to her chamber open with his fingertips. Nothing had been disturbed since the earlier skirmish that led to her fall from grace. Her drinking goblet remained smashed to pieces on the silver-veined black marble floor; her bed unmade, her favorite robe tossed haphazardly on the unkempt surface waiting to cover her limbs.

Placing one foot in front of the next, Titus strolled deeper into Bonnie's sanctum. Her heady perfume still blanketed the air, and though this atmosphere had no real definition of warmth, Titus could still feel just the bare impression of her aura that any minute now she would emerge from her dressing lavatory.

The man wasn't totally cognizant of his actions until the soft silk of her Prussian blue robe slid through his fingers.

She hadn't been the first to cast herself out of the realm, and Titus doubted very seriously she would be the last. But those who fell and ended up only God knew where, were never heard from again and certainly no rescue team had been dispatch to drag a fallen brother or sister back to Hedera. Things were different.

Severely different.

This wasn't a lifestyle anyone could just accept without fighting it tooth and nail. One had to be born into it, like him. She hadn't been, but she acclimated much quicker than anyone could have anticipated. And her herald, Titus sighed at the thought of the brute who mocked their laws and their customs with an air of such entitlement, it was a wonder he made it past his first day here. The one called Damon had been a pestilent creature at best, an asshole at worst, but yet Titus couldn't deny he had been…an asset. A skilled fighter and an army could never have too many of those.

Nevertheless, the true talent lied with Bonnie and she may be lost to them forever, and if she were then their existence in this realm could possibly become obsolete.

Titus dropped her robe back to the bed and pivoted in his sandals and when he did his hazel eyes widened in alarm.

Gargantuan. It was the closest word to describe the man filling up the entire doorway and then some. Swallowing thickly, Titus eyed the being who ducked his head and swept inside of Bonnie's bedchamber.

Seven feet one inch in height—at his resting height, weighing an indeterminate amount of pounds but probably weighed a solid three hundred and fifty pounds of pure muscle with almond skin, shoulder length sable hair, and the coldest dark brown eyes this side of the Milky Way, Gannicus Praedo wasn't named the Destroyer for nothing. Several of his reputations preceded him. He was known as world breaker, killer of gods, the annihilator. No one, absolutely _no one _trifled with Gannicus and lived.

Those calculating orbs of his housed in a face that inspired epic poems took an inventory of Bonnie's chamber. Gannicus didn't frown. His face was too hard for that like a rocky terrain. Titus knew better. A quiet Gannicus never bode well for anyone and he didn't possess the power to stop Gannicus or at the very least subdue him should he lift up his foot, and crush his world to pieces.

"She is not here," Gannicus broke the tension-filled silence. "Nor do I detect her presence anywhere in this realm," his head snapped in Titus' direction and his lip curled. "Where. Is. She?"

Titus wanted to pull at the metal collar of his armor. Good thing he never took it off, but it wouldn't do much to protect him from a punch or a swing of Gannicus' sword. His steel had been forged in the volcano of creation thus making it deadlier than anything in existence and indestructible.

Inside his mind Titus was screaming for Avitus to come and explain to Gannicus the situation. Naturally, his brother would choose now to go visit his fields and leave him to deal with the ender of ender's. He hadn't at first understood his brother's urgency in recovering Bonnie. Then it clicked.

How could anyone elucidate to Gannicus that Bonnie tossed herself from grace after her herald had been expelled; and she did so with no thought of the consequences that would come upon her for doing such a foolish thing? How could he tell Gannicus that his intended apprentice—Titus was positive the giant wanted Bonnie to be more than just his understudy, that she gave up everything for a speck of insignificant dust in comparison to the rest of them? He was fresh out of ideas on how to break the ice on this.

He couldn't stall too long. Gannicus wasn't known for patience.

Just as soon as Titus got his words together in his mind, Gannicus lifted a meaty finger. "Lie to me and the very words you speak may be your last. _What _has happened here?"

Sighing in resignation, Titus hung his head and then craned it upward to stare the giant in the eye. Perhaps if Gannicus was in a merciful mood he might be able to live to see rest of the day.

"She fell," Titus didn't beat around the bush.

"Fell?" Gannicus seemed to taste the word in his mouth and found he abhorred it and spat, "Fell from what, exactly?"

"The realm, the empire, this level of existence. She freely gave it up."

The walls began to shake, the marble floor split underfoot, and Titus felt his powers draining.

Through gritted teeth Gannicus demanded, "Why?"

"Her herald," Titus panted as six thousand years of living began to catch up with him. "Her herald had been expelled and she leapt after him."

Gannicus reined in his anger. Barely. He pointed at Titus. "_Find_ her."

* * *

**Lafayette, Louisiana**

The beep of his text message alert snapped Elijah to alertness. He had only been going through the formality of feigning sleep. Being what he was it wasn't exactly required. Reaching for his cell phone and plugging in his passcode, Elijah tapped the screen and there in a bright blue bubble was a code.

_911. Port Allen. _

Sighing, he planted both feet on the parquet floor and dragged a hand across his face. It was nearly two in the morning and the last thing he needed right now was an emergency. Knowing what the outcome would be if he ignored this, Elijah rose from the bed and begun to dress.

Unthinkingly he stuffed his arms and legs into appropriate holes until his body was sheathed in tailored cotton. Next he grabbed his keys, typed a reply he was on the way, tucked his phone into the breast pocket of his suit jacket, and he was off.

Only he stopped at the top of the stairs and zeroed in on the soft thud of a heartbeat. Just that quickly he had forgotten he was temporarily responsible for someone. Cursing softly under his breath, Elijah retraced his steps and hovered outside of the guestroom where he had placed Bonnie earlier.

As quietly as he could, he opened the door. She didn't stir yet she did mumble unintelligibly. He wrote it off. Bonnie didn't appear like she would awake anytime soon, and hopefully this latest emergency could be wrapped up prior to dawn, and he'd return well before his charge was up.

Elijah closed the door and sat behind the wheel of his car in seconds. Firing up the engine he sped down the virtually empty highway reaching his destination in record time.

Port Allen was six miles outside of Baton Rouge, and a charming place to call home. Guiding his European automobile down vacant streets where he'd see an occasional police cruiser, Elijah arrived in the heart of the city and parallel parked outside of a government operated but not owned facility.

He forewent activating the car alarm. Those who were important, were big names of the city knew the car belonged to him, and what repercussions would follow if anyone were to so much as breathe on it.

Elijah walked up the flight of concrete steps at human speed despite his own inner sense of urgency. Quick strides took him to the basement of the building, and he entered a makeshift morgue that was kept off the official books for lots of reasons.

The cold air had no effect on the immortal. The smell of death was somewhat comforting, but never anything Elijah wanted to enshrine himself in. With a push of his hand the double doors of the morgue opened and he strolled inside, one hand tucked in his pocket.

Already there was Selene—a trusted ally, and the medical examiner that was paid a hefty stipend to cover up obvious murders committed by supernaturals who were sloppy, and had no reverence for keeping a low profile.

The two of them stood on opposite ends of the metal examination table. A body lied on top with harsh halogen light beaming down on the deceased.

The dense perfume of blood clouded Elijah's lungs, but didn't tempt his thirst. Whoever was just killed, exsanguination hadn't been the primary goal.

The medical examiner, a pudgy man in his late fifties with a heart condition, balding head, and a sweating problem bowed out of fear once Elijah stepped through the doors.

Selene cut her ice-blue eyes away from the man still disgusted with his aversion to vampires despite being in league with her kind for the last twenty years. She nodded respectively toward Elijah and reverted her impassive gaze to the body.

Once he could see the mangled corpse up close, Elijah schooled his features. Gave nothing away. He had seen bodies in worse condition than this. The person merely appeared as if they had been mowed down by a bus.

"You dragged me out of bed for this?" Elijah's voice lowered in octave a sure sign of his ire rising.

"You're not looking closely enough," Selene reproved, her British accent reverberating along the sterile tile walls. "Look at the bites on the shoulder."

Elijah leaned over. His pupils shrank as he examined the teeth impressions on the man—he could finally determine the sex of the person. The leader of the new regime of death dealers was right. Whoever bit this person, they had three rows of teeth if Elijah were looking at things correctly. Sharks had two rows of teeth and clearly this person wasn't a victim of a shark attack. Something else did this.

"Those aren't vampire, lycan, or hybrid bites," Selene said. "I think we may be dealing with a new species here."

Elijah lifted his head and penned Selene with a skeptical expression. "A new species of what?" he looked at the ME. "Are you sure these occurred within a single bite?"

The ME nodded his head. "I've taken several measurements," he showed Elijah what he found so far. "Done X-ray and those bite marks are not the product of someone trying to hit a specific target and missed each time. They're too precise and left clean entrance and exit wounds. And to answer the question about a new species, see for yourself."

The medical examiner peeled open the right eye of the victim since the socket was still intact. Elijah started but only for a second. He snapped his head in Selene's direction and communicated silently with her. They now had a serious problem.

"In six hundred years I've seen nothing like that," she shared.

"Nor I in a thousand years," Elijah echoed. He addressed the ME. "Are you sure this isn't a side effect of a fatal poison or venom?"

"It may be possible," Dr. Harmon Lancaster shrugged, "but no known poison or venom has transformed an entire eyeball into what you just saw."

Elijah nodded. It had been senseless to think it so. "For now we keep this among ourselves. We don't know what we're dealing with and I fear by the time we do it may be too late. Harmon, I want copies of the full toxicology report, blood and tissue samples. Find what you can and whoever you can that might be able to explain…_this_. You tell anyone…"

"I know," Harmon gulped. "I'll do my best to get the results expedited, but it may still take weeks for the tox report to be completed."

Selene added, "Perform DNA mapping as well. We need to know if this Vic were human, or if he was made into whatever the hell he was."

The two vampires left the morgue a short while later. Those eyes had been inhuman and abnormal. All black sclera, oblong-shaped purple irises, and silver pupils.

"Where was the body found?" Elijah grilled.

"Behind a dress shop on Jefferson," Selene answered. "There hadn't been much evidence to suggest a brutal attack happened. My theory, whatever that man is more than likely he was killed by his own kind. He carried no ID on his person, and if he is in fact a new breed of monster there might not be any public record of his birth. No immunization or school records, no work history. He could be a ghost."

"And if that's the case where the hell did he come from and how many more are like him gallivanting around?" Elijah said.

Selene was about to answer when a peculiar scent caught her nose. "What's that smell?"

Elijah halted in his stride down the hall. He stared at the pale woman beside him curiously. "What smell?"

Selene leaned toward Elijah and sniffed him. "You. It's coming from you. Why do you smell like what I would imagine cosmic energy to smell like?"

Alarmed, dark brown eyebrows lifted to Elijah's hairline. He didn't smell any different from how he typically smelled, at least to him. But if Selene could detect something on him, that something being a newly resurrected Bonnie Bennett then that meant anyone else could as well.

"Cosmic energy?" Elijah scoffed as if the idea were preposterous. "Maybe you've spent too much time around the dead and supervising autopsies. Come. Show me the site where the body was found."

Selene gripped him by the arm, her hold bruising and unforgiving. "You're deflecting which means you're hiding something. Whatever you're hiding I just hope it won't interfere with things. _This _problem we're facing is important."

Elijah jerked his arm away and pulled down the cuff of his sleeve. "I don't need a lecture, Selene. I'm perfectly aware of what my priorities are. And what's happening behind the scenes is none of your damn business. Never forget…" he raised a lone finger in the air. "This is a partnership that will last however long _I _determine it will. Move."

Selene didn't carry out the order right away. Mainly because she was suppressing the urge to pump Elijah full of bullets. Unconsciously her hand had slithered behind her and wrapped around the butt of her Glock. It wasn't until Elijah cleared his throat that Selene became aware of her actions and her fingers slinked away from her gun.

She moved without moving it seemed and stood before the Original. "Let us get one thing perfectly straight. _You_ need my services far more than I need yours. You're not the only one who's invincible around here."

A corner of Elijah's mauve lips twitched into a smirk. Assertive women had always been one of his weaknesses. He bowed his head and then step aside so that Selene could walk in front of him. Dull moments were rarely had between the pair of them.

* * *

It was a little after seven in the morning when Elijah returned to Lafayette. The first thing he did upon arriving at the house was check up on Bonnie.

When he entered the room, his mouth fell open.

The flame from the oil lamp was nearly extinguished, but it didn't really matter considering he could see just as well in the dark as he could in the light. Bonnie's ivory cover up had somehow magically transformed into a diaphanous gold dress that was sheer in some places and beaded in others. A gown one would expect royalty of some sort to wear. Her wet, stringy hair now lay in thick waves fanned on the pillow surrounding her like a halo. Bonnie's skin glowed like she had been sprinkled with stardust. She looked peaceful in slumber.

_She entered her privy chamber and saw him standing there peering through the glass windows to the outside world. The sun hit him straight in the face, a look of deep contemplation lodged into the curve of his mouth and the furrow of his brow. She didn't need to ask what or more to the matter who was on his mind. It was only at times like this did he become an open book, and Bonnie could read him cover to cover. _

_Bonnie gently sat aside the book she had been reading and cleared the distance between them. Only briefly did the view from outside distract her as a planet—about one third the size of Jupiter and tinted blue in color began to rise and blot out of the sun in an eclipse. _

_Damon reached into his back pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. He flipped through the stack until he reached a one dollar bill, extracted the currency, and tossed it to the floor._

"_What was that for?" Bonnie questioned._

_He smirked, snorted, and finally brought those glacial eyes to her. "That's for something I haven't seen before."_

_Bonnie laughed and then nodded at the planet as it lazily drifted by. She still couldn't believe she was seeing things she would need a NASA-like telescope to see. This place constantly blew her mind. _

"_I've been told it's called Wuruhi and it simply means wolf in Maori. They borrow a lot of terms from different civilizations and worlds to make up their own vocabulary."_

"_Interesting," the vampire's tone belied the opposite. "They couldn't come up with a more creative name?"_

"_It's the meaning behind it that's more important, Damon. The wolf is a symbol of strength, and wolves travel in packs, and this place they like to think of it as a pack. A family. A pantheon of sorts."_

"_Pantheon," Damon twisted his head to the side. "I like the sound of that better yet the implication. I've always considered myself to be god-like," he threw his head back haughtily. _

"_Here, you're a just runt," Bonnie winked and plucked at a string on her golden dress. _

Her chest rose and fell steadily; and her cheek-kissing lashes didn't so much as twitch. Her puckered lips were slightly curled into a smirk and Elijah couldn't help but find that charming.

Maybe he was too enthralled with her transformation to take note of the very real fact she transformed in his absence. This latest unexplained phenomenon he added to the list of growing unexplainable shit he dealt with on a too frequent basis. Yet a voice in his head was telling him he was witnessing Bonnie in her true form.

As he hovered, Selene's words came back to him. _"Why do you smell how I would imagine cosmic energy to smell?"_

Elijah frowned.

His brushed the back of his knuckles along Bonnie's cheek. She didn't move. Didn't nuzzle into his touch or stir. Her breathing hitched and then resumed its sluggish rhythm.

Elijah remembered those few days he had been in Bonnie's presence when they had been in league to take down Klaus. He had stood with her in the witch mansion while she did a last minute spell in swapping John Gilbert's life force into Elena; her magic had had a distinct smell. It carried the pungency of heavy foliage in a dense forest, which told him she had been an earth witch. Or maybe half of one because he had also scented burning embers when she cast that spell. It was rare for a witch to encompass more than one corner but not impossible.

He wasn't picking up those scents. Inhaling deeply, Elijah's sensitive nose found an aroma that seemed extraterrestrial by nature. Cosmic energy, just as Selene postulated.

Elijah sat down on the edge of the bed.

Lazily Bonnie's eyes opened. Their drowsy appearance could be mistaken for seduction or the other way around. Thought left Elijah's brain like an intellectual evacuation as Bonnie sat up, snaking one arm around his neck. She smiled sublimely and despite the alarms blaring in his ears, Elijah smiled back.

Her lips parted and Elijah stilled because he was eager to hear what she would say. Foreign words had fallen beautifully from her mouth even if her queries had been steeped in confusion.

Their heads drew closer together. Elijah knew the best thing he should do was to pull away, to not let things escalate any farther. But his body had a mind of its own, and left his common sense out of it.

Just as their lips hovered perilously close, Bonnie redirected and then spoke into his ear, "You please me."

The sound of her voice, melodious and alto in its delivery, made the immortal's spine stiffen. And it wasn't long he felt a pulse throbbing in a vein located south of the border.

Elijah stared at Bonnie mesmerized. She smiled at him knowingly. But the gleam in her gaze faded, her eyes rolled into the back of her head, and Elijah caught her body as it slumped forward. Out like a light once more.

Carefully he leaned her back along the pillows. Each moment with Bonnie was becoming more complex and confusing than the last. He didn't understand any of this. And…loathe he was to admit, a small piece of him was disappointed that a particular action didn't happen between them.

Astonishingly her once luminescent color began to fade to its previous dowdy pallor, and her voluminous hair resumed being a wet and tangled nest. Her clothes changed as well back into that ivory gown now stiff and wrinkled.

"The hell?" Elijah swiftly rose to his feet. "Maybe I do need some sleep."

Deciding it was best to leave, the Original vacated Bonnie's presence and closed the door after his exit. Yes, he needed to expedite getting into contact with her mother, because although he had been in her company for less than a day already he sensed things within him changing. Elijah didn't want to waste a second putting a name on it. And what was going on with Bonnie perturbed him to say the least. He just knew it was best she leave him immediately. He had too much to oversee and worrying about her well-being didn't fit anywhere on his schedule.

Walking down the hall, Elijah had his cell pressed to his ear. "I need you to do something for me which is of the utmost importance. I need you to get in contact with a woman named Abby Bennett. Tell her…it concerns her daughter."

* * *

Her dream ended and her eyes opened. As she moved, the crispness of the sheets didn't trigger any kind of memory, which was very disappointing.

Bonnie leaned up in the queen size bed and winced. She looked around at the dark cherry paneled walls, the tapestries, and the fireplace.

This wasn't home.

Not a second after leaning up her head started pounding and a raging burn began above her diaphragm. She felt a little disoriented and fatigued but she fought against it to swing her legs over the side of the bed…

…Miles away Damon finally broke the shackles of unconsciousness. Slowly his lids lifted and he saw nothing but darkness. Groaning, he tested his mobility and saw that his range of motion in his arms, legs, and neck were good but taut.

He coughed as he sat up. His jaw throbbed infuriatingly, and hunger seized his stomach in a vise. It had been…a while since he last feasted on a human or had a drop of blood. The place he used to call home rotten home substituted his usual diet for something less morbid—according to their customs. It killed his blood cravings and kept him satisfied for the most part; however, they didn't know Bonnie would occasionally let him bite her.

Maybe they found out and that had been the trumped up reason why they blasted his ass into space.

Rising to his feet took some doing. Finding his equilibrium and balance required huge amounts of concentration he didn't own.

There was so little light in this cave but his night vision helped Damon navigate his way to a rock wall. He buried his fingers up to his first metacarpal bone, wedged the toe of his boots for leverage, and hefted himself up. He climbed with the dexterity of a spider, using the small sliver of light as a guide to lead him to the crater his body created when he landed…

…The minute Bonnie placed her feet on the floor severe pain cut into her mid-section. She doubled over, crossing her arms around her middle as if that might alleviate the ache. It did nothing. The back of her throat burned for some type of cool relief.

The pain and cramping discomfort made her pitch forward. Where was that nice man? She was scared and didn't understand why she was hurting like this after sleeping so well.

The door to her room opened without her touching the handle. Bonnie ignored what that may imply as she trekked down the hall. She listened for any sounds of movement. She heard a hissing noise coming from behind a door located on the other end of the hallway.

Bonnie stopped midway as another cramp attacked her. She fell sideways into the wall, but then forced herself upright.

Clumsily she opened the door once she made it, and followed the sounds of that hissing noise. Without hesitation she threw open yet another barrier.

Steam engulfed her and the powerful and mouth-watering aroma of something sweet permeated the air to which Bonnie greedily breathed it in.

Her trembling hand reached for the plastic tarp suspended from silver rings attached to a pole, and she wrenched it sideways revealing her nice man who was _very_ naked.

Two pairs of eyes widened. Elijah had been so lost in thought he hadn't heard Bonnie barrel inside his bedroom. Yet there she stood gaping at his wet body.

Bonnie's eyes out of pure curiosity slid down the body of the nice man. Her cheeks burned, but she couldn't seem to stop herself from looking and there was so much to see!

Beads of water pebbled or sluiced down a pale chest bisected with well-defined muscles that weren't in anyway bulky or overly developed. His torso tampered off into a narrow waist, his thighs were well formed as well as his calf muscles. Dark hair covered him lightly from the waist down. But there was a thatch of it located between his thighs where the most magnificent thing Bonnie had ever seen jutted a little away from the rest of his body.

"I'm sorry," she blubbered yet she couldn't tears her vision away from his groin.

However, her perusal was interrupted when Elijah jerked the curtain to cover his nudity.

"Was there something you needed, Bonnie?" he poked his head around a gap in the shower curtain he created.

"My body hurts. My stomach."

Elijah thought for a second doing what he could not to feel exposed or mortified. Nudity was no big deal to him; however, out of his siblings he had always been the most prudent, saving parading around in the nude with someone he loved and trusted.

Regardless, having Bonnie's eyes on him made his body react in ways it hadn't in months.

"You must be hungry," Elijah hypothesized. Who knew when she last ate. "I'll be out in a minute."

Bonnie didn't move. She merely blinked.

He sighed. "Could you give me a moment to finish up here…alone?"

"Oh," Bonnie laughed uneasily and quickly left the bathroom leaving the door open in her wake.

She at least had the foresight to close the bedroom door.

* * *

After hours of climbing, it seemed, Damon wrenched himself from that pit of darkness. He inhaled the air, laughed ruefully, and grimaced. The darkened sky was shifting from black to dark blue. Sunrise was still an hour off. He had been underground for an entire day.

Cursing and brushing dirt and debris off his clothes, Damon looked around. There wasn't much to see, but the most important thing was, he could begin his search for Bonnie and pray she was here with him. Somewhere.

He hobbled with no clear direction but hoped he would hit a highway or road that may lead him to the nearest city, civilization, or whatever. As soon as he could figure out where he was then he could put something in his belly that felt like it was shrinking by the diameter.

A plane flew overhead and that comforted him severely. Planes meant people, right? This wasn't Planet of the Apes, yes? He didn't even want to think about that. Just kept his feet moving forward and once he stopped walking on hard, compacted dirt and hit pavement, he nearly wept.

It wasn't long before a pair of headlights stung his eyes. Damon held out the sign for hitchhiking, and if the person didn't slow down and offer him a ride, he'd just chase the car down and compel the driver to give him his or her car leaving them stranded on the side of the road.

Luckily he didn't have to do that. The car, a 1996 Honda Civic crawled to a stop and an Asian guy about college age rolled up next to Damon.

"Need a ride?"

Damon bent at the waist to look at the driver. "Yeah? This may sound like a dumb question but where exactly am I?"

The good Samaritan laughed. "Zion, Utah."

Damon's eyes ballooned. "And the date?" his voice had taken on a gravelly edge.

The Asian guy's brow crumbled in confusion like Damon should know these basic things. "October 15th, 2014."

A year and six months. He and Bonnie had been gone for a year and six months, Earth time.

"Shit."

"So you need a ride or no?"

"Yes," Damon reached in his bag of goodies and extracted his compulsion. It came roaring back with a vengeance. "We're gonna head to your place, and then you are going to book me a first class plane ticket to Virginia and," he eyed the man's neck hungrily, "I'm going to need something to eat."

Chapter end.

**A/N: A lot went down in this chapter, and everything that did happen will be connected. Bonnie's powers, whatever they may be, seem to come and go. Damon is free and plotting, and Elijah has a new problem on his hand. And this Gannicus dude what is he all about? More is to come. Thanks for reading! Oh and if anyone was curious about Uther the dog, I imagine he falls in the Doberman Pinscher family. And yes, the Selene I mentioned is the one from the Underworld series. **


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: I am really digging how much folks are digging this story. I love you guys, I really do! Thank you all so much for the reviews! This chapter features some important information so pay careful attention, but most importantly enjoy!**

***Oh and before I forget, I wanted to add who I envision as my original characters to give you a point of reference.***

**Titus—Aaron Taylor Johnson; Avitus—Ricky White; Nirisi—Melodie Monrose; and Gannicus—Jason Momoa. **

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. All OC's are mine. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**Sometime ago…**

_Thunder rumbled like a contended cat licking its paws and stretching out under the warmth of the sun. The sky, the kaleidoscope sky was overrun by cumulonimbus clouds that became denser around the mouth of a very active volcano. Weightlessness made the rocks and sand float over the ground as if magnetized and seeking its polarized opposite. _

_Two people walked in step next to one another. The swish of her gown, the clinking of his armor was a single symphony in a handful of sounds this far from the municipality. Everything else was deathly quiet. No birds flew overhead. No six or eight legged insects scuttled across the terrain. The few bushes, shrubs, and trees that were around didn't move or quiver in the blowing breeze that was more humid than refreshingly cool. _

_The obvious focal point of the land was the rocky formation that appeared to be black crystal glass spewing lards of molten hot lava that was shockingly bluish-green in color. Sluggishly it traversed down previously trodden paths creating vein-like rivers that were spellbinding as well as lethal. _

_One would suspect it to be hard to breathe being so close to a volcano, but the air was at its purest. _

"_That's the Volcano of Creation," he informed. _

"_Is that where you were born?"_

"_Not exactly. You see the ash surrounding it," he pointed at the teal colored particles that covered the base of the volcano. She nodded. "That is what we are fashioned from. We aren't born in the traditional sense."_

"_So you were created. You don't have a mother or father?"_

_He shook his head but then shrugged. "Again, not in the traditional sense."_

"_Is this place heaven?"_

_A corner of his well-formed mouth tilted upward. "This place is part of the heavens—yes, but not the heaven you were probably taught about."_

"_I wasn't taught much about heaven. Descendant from a bloodline of witches and all," she snorted ruefully. "I don't know much about religion."_

"_Nor do I. We are about relationship and service, not religion."_

_She nodded and he could tell she wanted to say more, but held back. "Why did you bring me here?" she asked instead._

"_I wanted you to see it because there are something's you'll have to understand in order to survive here, Bonnie. You can do unimaginable things in this realm that I can only assume you couldn't when Earth was your home. You're a part of us now even if you weren't created how the rest of the populace was."_

"_They don't…like me, do they? They feel I really don't belong here, right? I would probably feel the same way too if someone just popped up into my world where they shouldn't exist. I mean, it's happened…" Bonnie stopped once she realized she was beginning to ramble. _

_Titus smiled in encouragement. "Your presence as well as your friend's will take some adjusting, but…not everyone shares the opinion of Arrasaun. Then again nothing much pleases her. She'll be off to another realm soon enough so there's something pleasant to look forward to."_

_Bonnie stopped walking and Titus halted as well. "No one here is human…what exactly are you? I've seen some people walking around with wings…are you guys angels?"_

_That boyish smile reappeared making his blue eyes sparkle like diamonds. "There are angels and then there are things that rank above angels. We are one of those things but Avitus will tell you more…when you're ready. Give me your hand. There's much more for you to see."_

_Her warm palm fit easily into his. His head tilted back toward the sky and in a nanosecond they were airborne. The sound of her startled scream made him laugh…_

Titus slipped out of his thoughts and back into the council meeting with Avitus who sat behind his imposing black marble desk, elbows resting atop, fingers primed into a steeple.

"What did Gannicus say exactly?"

Titus grunted and rolled his eyes, "You know the man is a talker. He said he couldn't sense Bonnie's presence leaving me little choice but to explain why. Thus he _ordered _me to find her."

A muscle in Avitus' jaw flexed, "Did he give you an estimated time?"

"No, he didn't, but I would imagine he will want her recovered within a fortnight. If she's not found and somehow brought back here then you know what that will mean for us."

"Gannicus may be a world breaking brute, but he's not stupid," Avitus extended his fingers before running them over his bald head. "He has no authority to destroy anything without the Prime Creator's consent. We are needed."

Titus was quick to agree, "Yes we are. We are a force of one. The first defense against our enemies. However, we are but a fraction and that makes us vulnerable, Avitus. Gannicus need do nothing but say we were negligent and the fact we've lost others in the past does not bode well for us."

"I'll talk to him."

"It won't do you any good."

Both men redirected their gazes to the willowy mahogany hued female who materialized inside the room in a vortex of smoke and purple fire. Her large, oval shaped eyes glowed amethyst before morphing into pools of jet that matched her hair, one dark waterfall of raven tresses that reached her waist.

"And why not?" Avitus asked of his sister Kirisi.

"Gannicus is not a negotiator. Nor his betters. They've felt for centuries that we are a baseless faction. A weak link in a strong chain. We have lost many in our battles and with this latest controversy it doesn't help our cause."

"It doesn't matter what Gannicus or the other world breakers think," Avitus ruled through clenched teeth. "They do not have the final say."

Kirisi couldn't refute his words but still felt the need to caution him and Titus. "That is true, brother. The Prime Creator knows and sees all; nevertheless, we may still be viewed as inconsequential," she approached the marble desk and gently laid her hands on the sleek surface. "You were willing to use my friend to prove a point, but you never imagined her bond with that outsider would be so great. You overplayed your hand and underestimated the both of them."

Avitus couldn't disprove that and nodded reluctantly. "He complicated things. I made the decision to have him expelled knowing Bonnie would never be complicit if he had been outright executed. Plus Gannicus would have viewed keeping him alive as an insult. They were supposed to be irrevocably separated," he pinned Titus with a glare, "and now they are irrevocably lost and we will face our doom for it."

His words and proclamation hung heavy in the air. Kirisi looked at Titus who stared at the far wall. She knew instinctually he was thinking of something. Something their brother would never agree with nor allow. This didn't surprise her bearing in mind he was the more radical one out of the bunch. Until Damon Salvatore came along, that is.

"Maybe not," Titus said. "There may be a way to salvage this. But we'll need the help of a pagan."

Avitus jumped to his feet then, outrage clearly etched within his copper features. "Have you lost your mind?"

Stepping forward, Titus continued his argument. "Avitus, what are our other options?" he paused and waited. His brother remained silent. "None, just like I thought."

Avitus turned to Kirisi searching for a second opinion that wasn't heaped in hearsay. She only nodded. "Fine," he relented. "Do what needs to be done."

Bowing his head, Titus vanished from the room leaving behind a plume of orange smoke.

Avitus felt the weight of his sister's condemning scowl and when he gathered the courage to look her right in the eye, internally he withered.

"You were wrong for using her after what she endured in her human life," Kirisi spoke candidly.

"It was not by my choice, Kirisi. I have no more control over her appeal than I do over Titus' blonde curls." Kirisi smiled grudgingly. "Gannicus saw something in Bonnie, and whatever that may have been he wants for himself."

"Could you so easily hand me over to him if I were in Bonnie's position?"

The question hit Avitus in the heart. He and Kirisi had been created during the same year on the same day that they were virtual twins. The idea of her not being around was alien to him and caused a rebellion of sorts to start in his gut.

Satisfied that her query threw her brother off, Kirisi took her leave but not without adding one final food for thought. "Wherever Bonnie is she's much better off than being Gannicus' minion. Having that kind of blood on your hands would kill anyone's soul."

* * *

**Scotland**

_Dreams floated through her mind until she saw someone standing in the middle of the Old Wood, the part that was dense and overgrown. Apprehension began to crawl like ants up her neck, but Caroline persevered, pitching her feet forward._

_Shucking the thick foliage out of the way, she tried to avoid the prickly thorn bushes and low hanging branches as best she could. Unfortunately nature wanted its way with her. She got nicked quite a few times, some scratches going deep enough to break skin and draw blood. A set of branches twisted in her long milk-white locks, jerking her neck back painfully as she tried to keep moving._

_Caroline hissed, cursed, and snapped the thinnest branches until she freed herself. Wrestling away from the greenery, the young vampire studied her shredded fingertips. Welts formed, blood seeped from her wounds, but the astonishing thing…she wasn't healing. _

"_What is going on with me?"_

_Of course no answer was forthcoming, but Caroline knew her body chemistry had been off lately—at least here in this dream world where her invincibility went right out the door._

_A thick, oxygen stealing fog began to cover the area blocking what little sunlight there was. That changed the tempo of Caroline's breathing. _

_Just a few meters ahead, she saw a woman dressed in an ankle-length ivory dress standing still in a clearing of intersecting trees. She recognized her immediately. Even from the back she'd always be able to pick her out of a line up. Instant relief filled Caroline._

"_Bonnie?" Caroline said as she broke through the labyrinth of trees and bushes._

_From somewhere deep inside Caroline knew she only had a limited window of time to get to her friend before Bonnie disappeared again. She could never hold on to her for longer than a minute. _

"_Bonnie?" the anxious immortal tried again, her tone sounding agitated. _

_The figure never moved, never gave any indication she had even heard Caroline._

_Feeling petulant, Caroline reached across the short distance separating them, touching the woman's shoulder. She gasped because she felt rock hard under Caroline's palm, and ice cold._

"_Bonnie?"_

_Finally the girl turned around and it was indeed Bonnie, but something was wrong with her face. Her face was ceramic like a dolls'. Flawless with a golden iridescence, the archetype of inhuman etherealness. _

_She was downright gorgeous. Full thick obsidian hair ran down her back in soft waves, and her green eyes glowed neon like a stoplight. Old insecurities of never being good enough rose up in Caroline that she wrestled back into their cage. This was Bonnie! Her friend, her sister, and she was standing in front of her. But obviously something wasn't right. Intimidating looks aside, the lack of warmth in Bonnie's gaze made the hair on the back of Caroline's arms and neck rise. _

"_You're alive," Caroline gasped pulling off a great impersonation of someone concealing their terror. "I'm not just dreaming, right?"_

_Bonnie said nothing only smiled. She began speaking but Caroline couldn't understand a single word she said._

_Waving her hands back and forth, Caroline shook her head. "Back up. I can't understand you."_

"_I said…why didn't you care?"_

_Caroline blinked out of shock. "Care? I don't…Bonnie you aren't making sense. Of course I care!"_

"_One minute I was coughing up blood and the next you were ready to fly into Stefan's arms after he came back."_

_The blonde's mouth popped open and not a single word came out, which was a feat considering she had never been at a loss for words before._

"_You only cared about Tyler leaving but not the fact I was dead, that you'd never see me again. You got over my death so effortlessly."_

_This time Caroline croaked since she was choking on tears. "Bonnie, that's not true!"_

"_I was dead for three months and you didn't do much to look for me. You fed into the lie."_

_Caroline sputtered. _

"_You believed so easily I would travel the world with my mom. You only wanted me found when there was a problem."_

"_I…"_

"_But it's all right, Caroline. Someone always has to make the big sacrifice, right? It always has to be a Bennett, correct?"_

"_No! No, Bonnie I swear if I could go back and do everything all over again I would…I should have been there for you. I should have been the friend you needed me to be. I'm so sorry I let you down, that I wasn't there. That I left…you to die alone twice." _

"_All I hear is 'I', Caroline. As usual there's not much 'me' in there. And it's always been like that. But I'm gone. I found peace. There's no need for you to feel guilty about anything. Everything is as it should be. You'll finish college, get your degree, settle on a career, and live your life."_

"_I can't do anything of that if you're not with me, Bonnie to have the same. You shouldn't be the one who always has to suffer so the rest of us can be happy. I'm going to bring you back. If I have to plunge the entire world into hell, I'll do it because you deserve this, Bonnie. You deserve to be alive."_

"_Don't make things worse for others just because you feel guilty." Pause. "I have to go." She began fading, pieces of herself blending in with the scenery._

_Caroline stretched out a hand to stop her and it passed right through. "Bonnie wait!"_

_It was too late. Bonnie melted into shades of amber, green, and brown until her mere presence appeared to be vapor, plumes of smoke. _

Her dreams was the only place outside of videos and photos that Caroline could see, feel, touch, and hear her best friend who died—or more accurately poofed out of existence.

The first time Caroline found out about her best friend being dead for three months, she immediately slipped into denial because she had text messages and emails that proved Bonnie was alive. _All fabricated. _Jeremy per Bonnie's request had forged and doctored messages as not to disrupt anyone's happiness. But once the truth finally began to sink in, what Caroline felt next was grief so profound she found it easier and yes even cowardly to pretend Bonnie never existed that way it wouldn't hurt as much. She coped by feeding her lust rather than facing reality that someone she's loved for a huge chunk of her life was dead, and she had been too caught up in her own drama to notice her friend's strange post-graduation behavior.

Caroline hated her aloofness to the problems Bonnie faced before her death, after her death, and after her resurrection. She could admit to making the problems of the guys in her life priority over Bonnie's, and to lose her again without letting her know how much she loved her, how sorry she was for not always being there for Bonnie…Caroline honestly thought about ending it.

The dreams started a week after Bonnie vanished with the Other Side. They were a doubled edged sword in that Caroline could see Bonnie, but seeing her and knowing that once she woke up and Bonnie wouldn't be there made Caroline feel numbly hollow on the inside. And she couldn't forget her friend's words, the truth bombs lobbed on her head. That made her guilt quadruple.

"_Bonnie has a plan, right? She can bring him back?"_

Her worry for Stefan had overshadowed the pain Bonnie would have to go through to resurrect the guy she was beginning to crush on. Same ole self-centered Caroline, she thought bitterly.

Caroline glared down at the defiant witch who glared right back. The immortal watched dispassionately as the witch wiped blood from the corner of her mouth on her shoulder since her head was the only thing she could move.

"Like I told you before…there is _nothing _that can be done to bring either of them back. Why you think making me bleed from different orifices will change my answer," Liv ended her spiel with a shoulder shrug. "Then you really are just a dumb ass blonde."

That insult earned her another slap across the face. Caroline bent forward, bracing her hands on her knees focusing intently on Liv who straightened in the chair—her temporary prison.

Finding Liv and her twin brother Luke, who lied unconscious in another room of the Glasgow hotel they were calling home, had taken some time. Witches really did look out for their own. Finding a member of the twin's coven who would willingly sell them out…well negotiations had turned bloody very quickly. Caroline had walked away with the name of the city the twins liked to visit when they needed a place to lay low, and the earth had one less witch on its crust.

In Caroline's mind it had been self-defense.

"Maybe," Caroline began, "you aren't realizing the severity of the problem, Liv. If I kill you right now where do you think you're going to go? Where do you think you'll end up? Or anyone of us supes? So what I need to know is…is there another alternative, another place that Bonnie by some miracle could have gone to once the Other Side fell apart?"

Liv opened up her mouth to retort, but Caroline beat her to the punch.

"And you might want to consider telling me the _truth_ for your brother's sake."

Liv really fucking hated vampires. Part of her had wanted Markos and the Travelers spell to succeed globally, but she would have been just as affected. However, she would take the loss of her powers if it meant every single vampire would be toast.

As it stood, compliance was her option next to death. Caroline needed her; it wasn't the other way around. Sure there were lot of other witches and warlocks out there that knew what she knew, and they would take one look at Caroline and pulverize before she had a chance to make her case, that was one fact Caroline couldn't muscle her way through.

Resigned, what Liv was about to divulge she would do to prevent Caroline from killing Luke, again, and also…for Bonnie. The girl had been fucked no matter what angle someone studied it from.

"There is," Liv sniffled to stop blood from pouring out of her nostril. "Disclaimer alert, this is based off a theory with very little scientific or magical proof to back it up."

"Out with it," Caroline snapped.

"Bonnie…and Damon respectively could be in any one of these places if they in fact exist. Think of the universe like a layered cake. Each layer represents a realm. The icing represents the in between. The Other Side was like icing on one layer of the cake. Our existence is what you would call the physical realm. So theoretically they could be in either the celestial, spiritual, casual, astral, etheric 'layer' or realm. I don't know what comes before or after the physical realm. So they could be goners and you're chasing smoke."

Caroline mulled over Liv's words, thinking. "So there is a small chance they could be alive in another realm…beyond our reach?"

"Possibly. They weren't the only ones to be sucked up into the void. They all had to go somewhere…find some type of balance. So finding them will be a literal search for a needle in a galactic haystack, and no witch or warlock will be able to help you with that."

"The door to the Other Side was opened. The same could be done for another realm," Caroline argued. "We just need to find the key."

"And I'm telling you right now, no sorcerer with an ounce of morality will open up a door to another world _if _they even have the spell to do it. It's too dangerous and you have no idea what might be waiting on the other side. Just accept it and move on, Caroline. Your friend is _gone_. Forever."

And that was something Caroline refused to believe or accept.

* * *

**Lafayette, Louisiana**

Bonnie's face was molten hot with embarrassment. She understood she had invaded the nice man's privacy and for that she wanted to apologize, but because of her mortification she couldn't bear the thought of looking him in the face. Every time she closed her eyes she could still see him. Still see every last inch of him. Soaking wet and so beautifully muscular her fingers were itching to touch to discover if he were in fact real.

Furtively she shook her head. Touching him would be against the rules, right? Or…no because this wasn't her world and what had been banned there she could do here? Bonnie didn't know and _that_ frustrated her to no end. She would have to get some answers from that nice man if he would be willingly to talk to her after the way she intruded on him.

And what was his name? She was starting to get annoyed by privately referring to him as 'nice man'.

Bonnie made her way back inside her room and closed the door. She wanted to get clean as well so she opened up one of two doors in the room. The first led to a closet where a few garments were hanging from triangle shaped ornaments, but they were clothes meant for a man's body. This was clearly the dressing lavatory.

She moved on to the next door and came up successful. Inside the bathroom, after a few trial and errors Bonnie figured out how to operate the sink, shower, and the toilet.

Stripping out of her gown, Bonnie stepped into the claw foot tub once filling it almost to the brim with water. For a minute she merely soaked and allowed the heat of the water to massage the last remaining sores and aches from her body. She smelled the soap that had been sitting innocuously in a little dish suspended above the tub.

It smelled all right for the most part, vaguely reminding her of some fruit she may have eaten to the point she had grown sick of it.

Bonnie lathered her hands then worked on her arms, legs, feet, her breasts where there had been an interesting tingle the second the bar of soap came into contact with her nipples. She sunk her teeth into her lip and thought if she should do that again, but decided not to. Bonnie lightly prodded the abrasion along her hairline, wincing. It was still sensitive to the touch. Carefully she washed her face and then slipped under water to rinse.

She opened her eyes and air bubbles floated across her vision. Bonnie shifted her head to the right and was hit with a memory. She saw a body floating underwater. A boy with blonde hair wearing a royal blue shirt. She was…swimming toward him because he…he needed help and she had to save him or he'd…

Bonnie sat up abruptly spitting out water. Some sloshed over the rim of the tub and wet the floor. What the hell was that? Why couldn't she remember anything!

The mirror over the bathroom sink shattered and fragments landed in the sink. Bonnie's head whipped toward the disturbance. The water in the tub began to bubble capturing Bonnie's attention. She had no idea what was going on and the minute a flame burst and rippled along the surface, Bonnie nearly killed herself getting out of the tub.

As she screamed, the flames expanded outward and upward.

"Bonnie!"

"Help!" she cried. "Please help me!'

The door to the bathroom flew open after Elijah rammed his shoulder into it. At first the only thing he saw was a quivering and naked Bonnie Bennett crouched in a corner trying to cover herself with her arms.

Guess this made them even.

"The fire!" she yelled.

Elijah ripped his brown orbs from her and focused on the flames shooting out of the bathtub. Well, there wasn't much he could do about that aside let the water out of the tub.

Fuck. Fire couldn't kill an Original but that didn't mean it wouldn't hurt like a bitch to be set ablaze. Yanking up the sleeve of his shirt, Elijah boldly moved toward the tub, stuck his hand inside the burning water, and removed the stopper. He could have easily told Bonnie to call off the flames but seeing how erratic her magic was—if this latest display was of her making—in her panic she might've accidentally ignite the entire house.

Like he did when he found her, Elijah slowly sauntered up to Bonnie, swiping a towel off the rack and holding it out. She snatched it away and covered herself as best she could and pushed to stand on her feet.

The tension from last night returned and became even more palpable, but there was a noticeable difference. Elijah saw it, clouds of suspicion forming in the center of her irises.

"Who am I really?" Bonnie demanded, eyes narrowing.

"I'll tell you as soon as you're dressed and fed."

He loaned Bonnie one his shirts and a pair of his boxer briefs leaving her to change. There was something deeply intimate about Bonnie wearing his clothes he didn't spare too much time thinking about.

Elijah went to the kitchen to forage. He stuck with non-perishable items since the power had gone out. Crackers, dried fruit, and a pot of chamomile tea waited to be consumed.

Bonnie joined him a short while later, keeping quiet as she parked her derrière on a stool at the center island. They looked at everything but each other as Bonnie hesitantly dug into the spread he managed to prepare.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome, Bonnie."

"I'm sorry but I forgot your name."

"Elijah."

"Thank you, Elijah."

Hearing Bonnie whisper his name in Aramaic shouldn't have had any effect on him whatsoever, but he found himself swallowing hard and unable to move. When she licked a dribble of tea from her bottom lip that did it.

Not wanting to horde her space nor give into the cold hard fact he was ill at ease around Bonnie, Elijah excused him to change into another Oxford shirt.

Up in his room, Elijah made several calls. One to Selene to be debriefed on any problems that might have occurred within the last six hours, then to Klaus to see what he was whining and complaining about and found his brother in an amiable mood that should probably be taken as a warning. The last and final call Elijah made was to his tracker. To his chagrin Abby Bennett's last known whereabouts put her in Mystic Falls a year and a half ago shortly after Bonnie's second death. There had been no sighting of her since.

"Fuckin' perfect," the Original profanely lamented. "Don't stop until you locate her," he ordered and hung up the phone.

Just as soon as he worked his wet shirt off his shoulders and reached for a fresh dry one out of his traveling garment bag, his cell rang.

He answered, "What is it?"

"Boss Man, I'm one step closer to having a viable prototype. I even have a willing test subject. You free?"

That was good news. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

Elijah hung up and swiftly donned his clean Oxford and tucked the shirttails into his pants.

His thoughts shifted to what he was going to tell Bonnie. That was a conversation he was dreading but knew it was inevitable. Hence he kept his thoughts business centered.

Elijah couldn't recall the last time he tarried on anything. He thought deeply about a lot of things before following it up with a corresponding action. And most of the time the action had been deadly. When killing was what you were known for you invented ways to stay ahead of the curve, and it was time he did so again.

His life goal wasn't just to be Klaus' right hand man. Or the voice of reason when their allies flipped on them and the money in their coffers began to run low. Elijah felt his time had come and gone when it came to having a family, and since he was unquestionably sterile that was never going to happen; and the immortal family he had been reborn into was quite enough as it stood.

Did he think there was a place for softness in a monster's heart? Yes and no. Being sensitive to others needs exposed a weak spot, a vulnerability his enemies wouldn't hesitate to abuse. He had done it enough himself because the best way to hurt someone was by hurting someone they loved.

It never went out of style and always promised a return of desired results.

Now the universe saw fit to drop a bomb into his life he couldn't afford to have around. The faster he could get Bonnie Bennett out of his hands, the quicker he could resume his latest venture without needlessly worrying about her.

There were things that needed his utmost attention. But…Bonnie was in no position to be left alone unattended. And he sure as hell wasn't going to bring her with him.

Maybe Klaus had been right about him all along. Maybe he was weak and disguised it with bouts of heartless killing to sell the ideal to his family, and not so much to send a message to the opposition.

Shaking his head, Elijah refused to get this deep so early in the morning. It served no purpose other than to irritate him and make him think. He repeated his mantra in his head: Family first, business second, pleasure third, to hell with all the rest.

He entered the kitchen tying his tie and Bonnie sat there on the stool where he left her. Her plate was clean and she was beaming although she wasn't exactly smiling. It was just an inner glow that encompassed her entire being, and actually blotted out the rays of sunlight pouring into the room. It damn near became painful just to look at her.

"Are you stuffed?" he inquired and averted his gaze elsewhere. Elijah made sure to speak in Aramaic.

No answer came and he permitted himself a short glance in Bonnie's direction. Her head was cocked to the side. Even in their short time together Elijah knew that translated into her incomprehension.

Any other day his exasperation would have probably hit the roof, but Elijah was the more patient Mikaelson, and so his tolerance level with Bonnie was high at the moment. Besides, to her, she was alone in this world and he was all she had. Being depended on in that capacity…toyed with his ability to compartmentalize situations into categories he could micromanage and terminate.

He couldn't put distance between them physically, but he could erect blocks to make sure she didn't burrow anywhere near his resolve.

So Elijah tried again in English this time. "Are you stuffed?"

Bonnie pushed up a sleeve of his shirt and scratched her arm. "I'm okay," she replied back in her native language and it was such a shock to Elijah that he completely lost his train of thought.

The former witch blinked owlishly at the man…Elijah. Yes! She remembered his name. She stared at Elijah and the veil of blankness that covered his face. Was something wrong with him? Had _she _done something wrong? Had he not intended for the shooting pains in her stomach to be quieted?

"What?" Bonnie said.

Elijah shook his head and snapped out of it. "Nothing…just you're speaking English when just five minutes ago you had been speaking fluent Aramaic."

"Oh," Bonnie twisted her fingers together. "I think…I think I had been in the middle of learning that language," she supplied uneasily.

New feelings, sensations, and even memories were resurfacing. It was gnarled confusion in her addled brain. Bonnie still didn't know very much about herself. Didn't have any clues to go on to build or reconstruct her life.

Elijah sauntered over to the center island and stood across from Bonnie. "You're beginning to remember where you were and what you had been doing?"

Slowly, Bonnie nodded. She could sense that Elijah wanted her to remember and it probably had little to do with a desire help her, but to be rid of her. That bothered her. The idea he wanted her gone, but she couldn't fathom why it would. She had enough sense to realize that he owed her nothing, and had been more than patient and generous looking after her.

"No, not exactly," Bonnie redacted.

"But someone had been instructing you in a language that hasn't been used in over two thousand years. No one just begins speaking another dialect from hitting their head on a mere fall."

There was anxiety in his voice, Bonnie could discern.

Furthermore, that word fall sparked something. The sensation she was moving rushed through Bonnie and she clutched the edge of the kitchen island, and literally the ground beneath her gave way. Or so it felt.

"Oh God," Bonnie breathed.

"What's the matter?"

Her skin became clammy, and a strong dose of nausea hit Bonnie so hard she jolted off the stool and rushed to the sink. She gagged but nothing came out.

Elijah came to stand next to her wanting to hold her hair back, but was afraid to touch her.

Panting, Bonnie looked at him. "Who or what exactly am I?"

The moment of truth had arrived. The Original censored nothing.

Elijah told her what he knew about her. Told Bonnie she was the granddaughter of Sheila Bennett a witch who unfortunately was no longer alive. Confessed she had been a hero in her own right, doing what she could to keep her friends alive, going so far as to bring back her best friend's brother from the dead which cost her, her life; but a deal was worked out, and she became the anchor to the Other Side, a purgatory of sorts for the supernatural.

Something happened which made the Other Side implode and she had seemingly gone with it, but now she was back, alive and it was nothing short of miraculous.

A play of emotions ransacked Bonnie's face with each revelation which only gave birth to a new round of questions. Questions that would surely implicate him in being an integral role in her losing a parent should she continue to dig, and experience said she would.

"And you know me through a girl named Elena who is a doppelganger of a woman you knew some five hundred years ago that crossed your brother Klaus, a hybrid? And you're an Original vampire?"

"I know it sounds ridiculous…"

"No, it is!" Bonnie snapped and resisted pulling her hair. "None of what you're telling me could have happened or should be possible. There's no way I'm a witch or _was_ a witch, or that there are copies of people living out there. Vampires don't exist. "

Elijah showed Bonnie the face he reserved when his anger was too great to control.

"I stand corrected," she blanched and slid away from Elijah.

He made sure his face returned to normal before saying, "I won't hurt you, Bonnie."

"Yeah, right. What about my parents? You didn't say anything about them."

Elijah averted his eyes. "Last I heard…your father was killed and your mother…she's now a vampire."

Tears pebbled in Bonnie's eyes. "My dad is dead?" Elijah nodded. "How was he killed?" she asked hoarsely.

"By an immortal named Silas, the first ever vampire to exist."

Bonnie allowed that news to soak in. Her brow crumbled in her quest to remember but she hit nothing but a brick wall in trying to conjure this man-her father and the circumstances involving his death.

She focused back on Elijah and noticed how uneasy he appeared in being the bearer of bad news. "My mother…did you turn her?"

The heat and intensity of the question almost cauterized Elijah's courage. "In…a way," he hedged.

Bonnie's chin tilted up as her left eyebrow climbed her forehead. "What do you mean? In. A. Way?"

"I made a poor call, Bonnie. My mother…she was a witch like you and responsible for creating what we all assumed was the first race in vampires. She wanted to undo what she had done and so she linked me and my siblings' lives together in that what befell one would befall us all.

"My mother didn't possess the power to do this on her own. So she resorted to using the power from witches in your bloodline to eradicate my kind. As such I…I laid out an ultimatum. One I regret out of all the deplorable things I've done in the name of family and survival. The choices I made…"

Elijah's voice became muffled in Bonnie's ears. Choices.

"… _didn't __have a choice…"_

"… _another choice… someone else suffers…"_

"…_I'm sorry _Elijah _forced us to turn Abby to save Elena's life…"_

Elijah.

He stopped speaking and listened.

The house rumbling was the first tip off things were going downhill. The second, glass and plates spontaneously shattered. The metal canisters on the countertop bent, cutlery warped as if superheated, and finally the color of Bonnie's eyes turned from olive to amber.

He wasn't given the opportunity to say anything further in his defense, nor get right with the Lord as his body catapulted straight into a wall, denting the drywall. That didn't hurt, didn't knock the wind out of him but what came next, Elijah could only describe as an invasion. An invisible force sunk its talons right into the intricate fiber of his soul tearing it apart slowly like a piece of paper.

As much as his eyes wanted to take a tour of the back of his skull, Elijah kept his gaze firmly planted on Bonnie. Her hair moved about her shoulders, blew across her face. She walked toward him with the grace of Cleopatra.

She wrapped a slender hand around his throat and lifted Elijah clean off his feet. "You're responsible for what my mother is now."

"I…ackkkk…I didn't kill her, Bonnie," his throat collapsed under the pressure of her hold. "I set the ball in motion," he wheezed. "And yes that makes me responsible…"

Conflicting images sprouted in Bonnie's mind making her head throb even more. She couldn't let him go because of what he did although those memories were about as concrete as fog, but the _emotions _tied to those memories spurned her disgust with the man writhing in her grasp. Her rage, anger, helplessness, disbelief it overwhelmed Bonnie that the pounding of her heart drowned out everything else.

A deluge of power, uninhibited and ancient power coursed through her to the point Bonnie saw it wriggling underneath her skin. That distracted her for a second.

Elijah saw it as well and pretty much figured this would be his last moment on earth. "I'm…sorry…" he choked out.

"So am I," Bonnie spoke and the sound of her voice carried with it an authoritative echo. A voice as tremulous as thunder but deadly like lightning.

Mercy had been granted as someone rushed into the room and tackled Bonnie away from Elijah who fell gracelessly to the floor and looked up in time. "Hayley, don't!"

_Blip! _

Several blocks away, Henri Devereaux shimmied his way out of his house into his backyard ready to chow down on his breakfast. He sat the platter of buttermilk pancakes down in the center of the patio table. He tapped the hand of his oldest son who was a seventeen year old jock with a bottomless pit for a stomach.

Henri looked up just in time as a blinding white light exploded as if a nuclear bomb had just gone off. "Mon dieu! The fuck was that?"

Chapter end.

**A/N: Just what did Bonnie do? Hmm. What has been unleashed? Did Hayley or Elijah for that matter survive? I wanted to include Damon in this chapter but what he's doing and thinking will serve better next chapter. As always thank you so much for reading and let me know what you think. Love you!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Here with another update! Whoo-hoo. Thanks, loves for the reviews because they certainly keep me pumped for this story. Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: These characters (with the exception of my OC's) are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**Zion, Utah**

Adam his benefactor had been the most accommodating then again he didn't have much choice. He didn't own a leather jacket much to Damon's chagrin, but it wouldn't have fit considering their height and physique differences. The man had cash to which Damon more than helped himself to, and the most delicious blood he certainly didn't forego tasting.

Standing under the showerhead in Adam's modest one bedroom apartment, Damon leaned his head and palms flat on the cold tile allowing hot water to sluice down his back.

The earliest flight to Virginia he could book was scheduled to take off at four o'clock in the afternoon. Damon had tried calling Stefan using Adam's cell and discovered the number was disconnected. He hesitated in calling Elena, but had dialed her number anyways. That call had been routed to her voicemail.

For some inexplicable reason he couldn't leave her a message. Not because he didn't want to, but because something's were better done in person. And what exactly would he have said, "Hey, it's me, Damon back from the after afterlife and Bonnie came with me, but I have no clue where she is. Hit me back when you get this."?

That wouldn't have been weird or awkward at all.

Running a hand through his hair, Damon stared at the bind around his right wrist…

**Year Two**

_He had been fighting for the better part of the morning. His blood mixing with sweat but his muscles were far from being fatigued. Damon was catching his second wind._

_His armor blinded him under the sweltering pinkish-orange sun. His throat was parched and his stomach rumbled with hunger pains, but until this cycle was over he wouldn't be permitted a moment to rest. _

_From his peripheral he saw her enter the amphitheater draped in black gossamer silk trimmed in gold. A corner of his eye crinkled as she took a seat next to Kirisi. Removing his helmet since it was doing nothing but aggravating him, Damon tossed it aside and flipped the boar spear until the blade faced his opponent._

_The sun beamed directly into his eyes, a viable excuse for why he took another look into the crowd and zeroed in on Bonnie. She held a scrap of lace up and then quickly balled it into her hands where Damon imagined she folded them demurely in her lap. She was doing all she could to fit in and follow the rules of decorum. It made him snort. _

_By the time he faced Favian his sparring partner, the man had already rushed him and Damon had just enough time to duck to the right or the tip of Favian's blade would have gone clean through his nasal cavity. His ear, unfortunately, caught the brunt of the intended blow, and searing hot pain made the vampire grit his teeth. That was nothing though. His priceless package had been damaged much worse in the past. _

_As a thank you to Favian for giving him that ear piercing he always said he wanted, Damon head butted his opponent, whirled the boar spear over his head like helicopter blades before sweeping the legs right from under Favian who hit the ground at an odd angle. There was an audible snap followed by the sound of a muffled scream. Giving the man no chance to recover, Damon jammed the tip of the boar spear into Favian's jugular._

"_Make the slightest twitch and you're dead," he promised. _

_Favian narrowed his glowing burnished gold eyes, and tested Damon's proclamation. When the sharpened metal sliced through the top layer of skin, and warm blood oozed from the wound, he instantly stilled and reluctantly lifted two fingers in the air signaling his submission._

_A mixture of boos and cheers came from the crowd, and whether those boos were for him since Favian had been the favorite to win the match, Damon didn't care. He stepped away from Favian and in an act of uncanny sportsmanship from him, offered the man his arm and hefted him to his feet._

_Favian brushed sand off his backside and winced slightly at the pull in his muscles, especially the ones in his injured neck. "You're a much better fighter than you appear," he complimented rancorously. _

_Damon shrugged, "I have to be more than just a pretty face. Otherwise the girls won't respect me."_

_Favian guffawed. "Go while I try to find my pride."_

"_Good luck with that. It might be over there somewhere where Payat lost his humility."_

_Both men looked to the man sitting on a bench with two black eyes and cotton stuffed in his nose to staunch its bleeding. He flipped them the bird. Damon winked in retaliation. _

_As they parted ways, Damon headed over to his area for a drink of water and to wash some of the blood and sweat off his hands and face. He smelled her perfumed skin long before he actually saw her enter the barracks. Damon needed that scent because he had been breathing in nothing but the fumes of rancid male flesh._

"_Any reason why they're taking so long to make a more than obvious decision about who should be your herald?" he asked._

"_I know just as much about the politics of this place as you do, Damon. Still learning how things work. But I heard you've been killing it. Almost literally."_

_He grinned and finally made eye contact. "What can I say? I was built with stamina in mind."_

"_Good because I think you have one more fight left." _

"_I could use a bit of an energy boost. Got a Redbull on you by any chance?"_

_Bonnie laughed, "No, but here's an incentive for you." _

_She held up the scrap of cloth, a thin piece of intricately woven lace with gold thread. Seeing it transported Damon back to his origins and beyond where men used to engage in jousts and duels for the favor of some woman they were courting or hoping to court. Here in this world it wasn't exactly symbolic with that. It was a gift nonetheless any man or woman would fight to earn._

"_While you were sleeping in yesterday I promised this to the victor," Bonnie informed._

_Damon snapped his fingers before crooking two at her. "You might as well hand that over now. We both know it's mine."_

_Bonnie arched a brow while Damon had the good sense to look somewhat sheepish. Lately he had been saying quite a few things that bordered on possessive where she was concerned. Bonnie chalked it up to them only having each other though she was doing what she could to make friends. _

_The trumpeters began playing once more. _

"_Looks like you're up again. Try not to die," Bonnie said and retook her seat._

_Damon waltzed back to the grounds of the arena. When the gates parted open and his last and final opponent walked out, he fought valiantly not to soil himself._

_Six-six, two hundred and seventy pounds of mean muscle stomped into the arena amid boisterous screams and whistles. Zigor, his name meant punishment and from what Damon had heard, it was a name he wore well. _

_Bouncing on his feet, cricking his neck, Damon gave himself a pep talk. "You can do this. David took out Goliath with a stone in a sling shot. This won't be so bad." _

_Zigor approached and when he stood only feet away from Damon he blocked out the sun. _

"_Guess I'm fighting in the shade," Damon quipped. _

_Several minutes later…_

_This fight was not going how the others had. Defeating his opponents in five moves or less. Damon couldn't pinpoint a single weakness since this Thor impersonator was moving too fast for even him, a vampire to keep up with._

_Repeatedly he was dropped to his knees. Their harried movements kicked up dust that stung his eyes. The stave this juggernaut of a man favored to use lacerated Damon's calf, flaying the skin wide open, bit into his shoulder, tried to cohabitate with his kidney. A fist punched him right in the nose which caused a rippling effect of bone breaking from his orbital sockets to his cheeks. _

_Damon fell backwards slowly it seemed. Blood swam in his mouth, flooded his throat, pain erupted everywhere. This wasn't a sparring match. Zigor was trying to kill him._

_In the distance he heard the buzz of confusion coming from the audience. They were slowly catching on as well, but no one had yet to come to his rescue. Damon twisted awkwardly on the rocky sand trying to find Bonnie, but that towering sack of male domination blocked his view. _

_He was picked up like a bench press and tossed, sailing like a Frisbee where he expected his shoulder or head to meet with the coliseum wall. Instead he was grabbed again in mid-flight and hammered to the ground. _

_Damon coughed out blood violently. Zigor took a moment to enjoy the pandemonium of the audience as if he had already won. His mistake. _

_Reaching underneath himself, Damon withdrew a double edge knife he had kept hidden in his raiment. Once in hand, he thrust it clean through Zigor's knee from MCL to ACL. When you were literally down on the ground you had to do what you had to do._

_The brute roared and tried to crush Damon's chest but he rolled out of the way, swept Zigor off his feet with a kick of his legs. He landed hard and rumbled the earth like an earthquake. Scrambling to his hands and knees, Damon crawled over to Zigor and placed the man in a bruising chokehold. Zigor clubbed Damon's head between his two fists and though that made the world disappear from sight for a few seconds, Damon refused to let go and then just said fuck it. He snapped Zigor's neck._

_A hush fell over the antsy horde. The vampire didn't ask anyone if they were entertained._

_Instead, he teetered over on his back. It took a minute for the world to stop whirling around or more accurately for him to stop feeling the world rotate. Clumsily, Damon rose to his feet. _

_A group of people rushed in to sweep Zigor to the healers. They only had minutes or he would permanently stay dead. _

_Avitus was saying something, addressing the populace. Damon didn't care to listen but he saw the man-in-charge wave negligently in his direction like it was such a chore to actually acknowledge his existence. It did make Damon smile. He showed up the man's elite fighters. Avitus could suck his cock, he wasn't getting rid of him._

_The shifting of sand had Damon spinning around expecting to be ambushed. He calmed when he saw it was only Bonnie. The hot blowing wind made her gown conform to her curves, and Damon did what he could to thwart his gaze from dipping below her neck. _

_He knew he was losing that fight of making sure she didn't get under his skin._

_Bonnie drew closer and gingerly inspected his wounds. Some of them were already healing. _

"_How do you feel?" she asked._

"_Awesome," Damon hobbled a bit. The wound on his leg was taking its sweet time to mend. _

_Wordlessly, Bonnie reached for his right arm and tied her favor around his wrist. "Congratulations," sunlight caught her face at a perfect angle making her irises lime green. _

_Damon tore his eyes away to stare at what he bled liters of blood to earn. "Does this mean we're going steady now?" _

_Bonnie chortled and shook her head. _

_Titus had joined them and declared Damon as her rightful herald. _

"_Serve her well, Damon. Protect each other," Titus advised. He shifted his gaze to Bonnie. "Your training begins tomorrow with Kirisi. Get your rest. You'll need it." _

_After he walked off, Damon fingered one of Bonnie's curls. Her hair now touched her shoulders. "Nervous?"_

_She nodded. "It was explained what a Kyriotes is, I just don't see how being an enforcer of the galaxy equates peace in Grams' mind."_

"_It makes perfect sense to me. You were always too big just to be a witch or human. Being a celestial lordship is right up your ally," he winked. _

_Bonnie sighed nervously. _

Damon carefully fingered the lace. Much of it was still intact even after all this time. If he found a witch willing to help him, he might have to let it go so that it could be used in a locator spell and the thought of parting with it…he'd suck it up and do what needed to be done. But Damon had never worked so hard for anything that the idea of burning it to find Bonnie made his anxiety flare. If he had any special abilities besides strength he'd use them quick and in a hurry, but he was still trying to find his footing.

Shutting off the water, Damon snatched a towel off the rack and wrapped it around his waist. He padded to the sink and wiped built up condensation off the mirror. Just as soon as he picked up a disposal razor to shave, a burst of cosmic power slammed into him nearly crippling him. He tightly griped the sink, cracking the porcelain.

Breathing rapidly he tore out of the bathroom, the apartment itself and stood in the middle of the parking lot, eyes glued to the skies. He felt it. Felt _Bonnie. _She was…he closed his eyes to maximize on the feeling. She was scared but more than that pissed! But she was alive. She was here on Earth with him but still so far away.

A horn blaring startled him and Damon moved out of the way of a passing vehicle. He ignored the grumbling complaint of the person who pulled into a parking space.

Walking backwards to Adam's apartment, Damon nodded to himself. "I'm going to find you."

* * *

**Lafayette, Louisiana**

One eye opened and then the other. Blistering white light poured into his retina making him immediately want to snap his lids shut once more, but Elijah pushed through his own discomfort. Groaning, he rolled to a sitting position. Bricks, granite, and drywall fell off his shoulders and chest but his legs remained buried under rubble.

By some miracle he was still alive.

Elijah took an inventory of the damage done to the house caused by whatever power exploded out of Bonnie during the height of her anger.

Nothing was standing. She destroyed the _entire_ house. Part of him wanted to laugh about that, yet he was able to contain his giddiness because his present state of mind was upgrading to rage.

His head throbbed and Elijah picked up a brick and crushed it to pieces in a poor attempt to alleviate the ache. It only eased a fraction. He was drenched, thanks in part to the pipes that had been busted and were giving him yet another bath. And to top off his cruddy mood, Elijah felt hot and sick at the same time—sensations that were pretty much foreign to the millennial.

Getting to his feet became an exercise in will. Not only was he pinned down by remnants of the old Georgian estate, but by the lingering effects of magic, power, cosmic energy or maybe a combination of all three Bonnie unleashed, which turned his movements into sludge.

Could he really blame for her for her outburst?

Elijah had no immediate answer as he combed through the debris searching for the culprit and for Hayley. It didn't take rocket science for the Original to figure out that if Bonnie honestly wanted him dead he'd be dead. Whatever the resurrected anchor had done had decommissioned him for…Elijah stared at his timepiece only to discover it no longer worked. The diamond face was…his brown eyes widened. It was shattered and the only thing strong enough to cut diamond was diamond.

_She went easy on you,_ a small voice in the back of his mind foretold, but her generosity may be fleeting in the future.

Fear snaked along Elijah's fortitude making his sluggish movements clumsy. Hayley, a descendant from Original werewolves was resilient in her own right; however he doubted very seriously that she could have survived what just happened. She could have been fatally impaled by something if that blast hadn't done her in.

Elijah's search turned frantic as he tossed around furniture, kicked decimated pieces of history out of the way. He did his best to listen carefully for a heartbeat, but his hearing was off. His search wasn't providing any results.

Over by where the hot water heater had been stored, a tiny brown foot poked up from under a door.

Zooming over, Elijah flung the door off of Bonnie. From first glance she seemed uninjured. She wasn't bleeding anywhere. She looked no more harmless than a doll but the immortal knew better. Kneeling down Elijah checked for a pulse, and the second he touched her right under her jaw, Bonnie's eyes opened and they were still that burning amber color.

He braced himself.

Bonnie's head cocked to the side. "You're not my herald. Where is he?"

Elijah quickly made the conjecture Bonnie was probably referring to Damon. "I don't know. Are you hurt?" he asked calmly though he was beginning to tremble in his agitation.

He was not like Niklaus who snapped at the slightest infarction. He was better than that and honestly Bonnie had every right to end him. Yet the merciless killer within wanted retribution for the attempt on his life, but something else within Elijah stirred as well.

A deep awareness that he was in the presence of something far greater, perhaps even something the world had never seen before came upon him. This presence enshrined in Bonnie Bennett who for the moment was under his protection, goaded Elijah to guard her even more.

Was this need subliminally being perpetuated by Bonnie? Elijah didn't really know. He was just slowly being overwhelmed with an urge to move her, get her as far away from this place before they were discovered and not by law enforcement.

"Not more than usual," Bonnie answered his query.

He kept his face notably blank.

Swooping Bonnie into his arms, Elijah carried her over to an unaffected area of the backyard and lied her down on the grass. In the far distance he heard sirens drawing closer.

"Hayley!" Elijah shouted and moved to continue his search when Bonnie grabbed his arm and he was thus flipped on his back.

Bonnie straddled him, her hand going around his throat. "Where is he? My herald?" she demanded in that voice she used not too long ago that promised his forthcoming demise.

"I don't know where Damon fucking Salvatore is, and if I did I'd happily dump you with him. Get off of me. A friend of mine is still buried beneath the rubble _you caused _and she could be dying for all I know."

"Let her die," Bonnie said coldly. "I remember parts of you, Elijah. I remember what you did and how…you treated me and my mother. Unkind. Heartless," the amber light faded from Bonnie's eyes and in increments she tucked that vengeful side of her back into hiding. "I don't want to be like you."

Elijah watched as her orbs returned to their usual shade of viridian but then they became opaque. Maybe it was a trick of the light but Elijah swore he could see…wings sprouting from Bonnie's back. From east to west her wingspan stretched at least seven feet. The feathers as wide as his hand and the length of his forearm bequeath with a golden shimmer.

"Jesus," he whispered.

"I feel them, Elijah," Bonnie alerted, her head falling back.

"Feel who?" he licked his lips doing what he could to ignore the riotous itching in his gums, eyes glued to her slender neck. Elijah couldn't recall the last time he wanted to _bite _someone so badly that it hurt.

"Everywhere. So much rage and hunger. They despise any kind of opposition or…light."

Bonnie stared down at him, her warm fingers sculpting to his jaw. "Your world is in danger. What are you going to do about that?"

"What can I do?"

"Find my herald first," Bonnie swooned and she landed on top of him—out cold.

Cushioned underneath her, Elijah quietly hissed and did his best not to give a damn about the fact she was unconscious and vulnerable. Or how her soft body felt pressed intimately against his. None of that matter as much as recovering Hayley whose unknown condition could be turning critical the longer he remained immobile, and secretly delighting in the feel of a woman lying on top of him. Something he had gone a ridiculously long time abstaining from.

Gently pushing Bonnie off him, Elijah got to his feet and hurriedly continued his search. He found Hayley. She too was unconscious with some minor bleeding from a head wound, but other than that on the surface she appeared fine. Then again things weren't always as they seemed. Just as a precaution, he fed Hayley his blood as much as he could get in her system and prayed she didn't die. He debated about doing the same with Bonnie, and decided not to. Innately he knew she didn't need it.

It took him exactly five minutes to load both women in his car and to retrieve any personal items of his that might give his identity away. He had no choice but to leave Hayley's car behind.

Elijah had pulled onto the main road at the same time two police cruisers, fire truck, and ambulance were speeding down the south side of the road.

Blindly he reached into the glove compartment and withdrew a burner phone he kept on standby. Elijah hit the speed dial number and phoned Rebekah.

"I need you to meet me in Westwego."

* * *

**The border of Mystic Falls**

The last time he was here he sat on the hood his car and toasted the Welcome to Mystic Falls sign with a bottle of whiskey. Becoming a martyr, Damon ran from that responsibility when the South had gone to war with the Union. Back then he hadn't believed in the cause to willfully give up his life for it. However, the second time he did so was to bring his brother back from the dead, and it was an act he wouldn't outwardly say had been strictly altruistic. Damon had wanted his brother back for selfish reasons, pure and simple. Naturally there had to be a hiccup. Usually was if he were involved. The universe would go, "Jokes on you, Damon."

He could have been a raving lunatic about the whole thing but he wouldn't be facing whatever came next, if anything came next, alone. Bonnie stood there facing that blinding pale blue light. He had stated the obvious, cracked a joke, and then her hand slid into his.

As soon as it happened his fears instantly slid away.

Damon had no clue if Traveler magic still made witch magic ineffective, and he wasn't about to cross the border to find out. He managed to find and compel some poor girl to give him a ride from the airport with instructions to drop him off right before crossing into Village of the Damned, drive to his manor, and collect some much needed items.

That had been thirty minutes ago and Damon was getting antsy. Hopefully hoarders had not moved into his house.

Being back here felt so odd to him. He had undergone some culture shock in returning to Mystic Falls—three years prior Earth time, but had smoothly transitioned from big city vampire to small town blood drinker. This go around there was no escaping the fact he no longer felt natural in addition to already being unnatural, and knowing he didn't belong, displacement didn't even begin to cut it.

This town was his home but represented everything he hated and loved, but there was little point in denying one day he wanted to go back there, maybe even permanently.

The sound of an engine approaching caught his ear. His errand girl returned with two duffle bags of his requested items. Damon thanked her and sent her on her way.

Another car pulled up behind him and came to a screeching halt. Someone rolled down their window and inquired, "Is there a problem?"

Damon turned around and grinned his devil-may-care smile the moment he recognized the driver. "Not exactly the person I wanted to see," he began without preamble. "But you'll more than do."

Tyler Lockwood could only blink. "How the hell are you alive? Where's…where's Bonnie?"

"Nice to see you as well," Damon bit out facetiously. "How I'm back is a bedtime story for another time. I need you to assemble the troops. _Now." _

Still dumfounded, Tyler placed his questions on the back burner to process the situation at hand. Damon effing Salvatore was alive! What did this mean? But most importantly where the hell was Bonnie?

"Um…" Tyler stuttered. "Are you seriously Damon Salvatore?"

"Yes!"

The former hybrid exhaled harshly. "I'd tell myself to lay off the drugs but I'm not on any."

"Where is everyone?" Damon snapped.

"I don't know where Stefan is. He took off not long after you…died. Elena is back at Whitmore. Jeremy and Matt are in Mystic Falls, and Caroline…last I heard she's in Scotland looking for a way to bring you and Bonnie back."

Say what? Damon was tempted to scratch his head at that. "Alaric and Enzo?"

"Enzo skipped town and Alaric is hovering close to Elena."

Damon without question marched to Tyler's Challenger, threw open the passenger side door where he tossed his bags in the back. He dumped his weight in the passenger seat.

"What are you doing?" Tyler questioned.

"What does it look like? You're going to take me someplace where I can bunker and figure out who can lead me to Bonnie. She's here. And lost."

"Wait a second, she's alive and back, too? Then why aren't you with her? Are you really Damon Salvatore?"

Exasperated, Damon pinched the bridge of his nose. He hated having to deal with people who were exceptionally inept, but he would make this one concession considering Tyler wasn't handling his resurrection by squealing and jumping around like a ninny.

"In laymen's terms we were separated after I had been kicked out of a place that was less than paradise, and she decided to tag along with me. If you ask me if I'm Damon Salvatore one more time I _will_ perform open heart surgery on you. Does that answer your question? We're wasting time. Can we move this along and find Bonnie? I'll even thrown in a please."

"Yeah it's you," shaking his head, Tyler shifted the car into reverse. He looked Damon up and down before completing a three point turn and burned rubber down the road. He dug his cell out of his pocket and called Elena.

"Hey Ty."

Damon stiffened at hearing Elena's familiar raspy voice.

"Hey, Lena," Tyler kept his eyes on the road. Damon heard Tyler's voice soften in addressing his…Elena. "You're not gonna believe what I'm about to tell you, but it might be…slightly easier to take if you were to see. Are you at your dorm?"

"Yeah. You can swing by."

"Good that's good."

"Tyler what's going on? You sound strange."

"You'll see when I get there."

"All right. Do I need to kick my roommate out?" Elena teased.

Tyler sat up a bit straighter feeling the heat of Damon's penetrating gaze. "That might be best. I'll be there in an hour," he quickly ended the call.

The dark-haired young man flicked his eyes toward Damon. "It's not what you think."

Damon held up hands. "I'm not thinking anything other than you need to drive faster."

Tyler's hand tightened on the steering wheel. "So what happened to you and Bonnie? Does the Other Side still exist if the two of you are back?"

Damon chose to stare out the window. He didn't know what became of the Other Side and frankly he didn't care. Yet what happened between he and Bonnie was another matter altogether. _That _was private.

* * *

There were gods and there were monsters and she considered herself a little of both. She thought herself to be the truth buried underneath centuries and eons of myths and legends. No longer willing to be satisfied with the cold soup they had been surviving off of, she was willing to do something radical to rebalance the scales in their favor.

Dynasties of old had served their purpose, changed the topography of society. Now it was her turn for her regiment to seize control. Besides, she owed it to her foremothers who paved the way with their debauched displays of cruelty toward men and men-like beings to see her kind reign once more.

Queen Keres Creperum couldn't wait.

In his astute opinion, she seemingly wasn't paying attention to a word he was saying, but he didn't dare doubt her attentiveness. While her black lacquered fingernail traced the design on the stem of her wineglass, Trevelyan Ovinnik continued the debriefing.

"We have but a small window of time, Your Majesty to recoup our forces. They've already been detected in several cities despite controlling thirty-eight percent of the provinces. The portal that's been opened in the Southeast region is weakening…"

"Thirty-eight percent?" she interrupted and tsked in a voice that was breathily sultry. "I think we can do better than that. I want _total _control. The other daemons have had their run of things, and you see they've accomplished nothing. But I don't simply want to stop with this demesne, Trevelyan. I want to go all the way to the top and finish what our mother started."

"But also what she died trying to accomplish, My Queen."

Trevelyan saw the threat in her yellowish-purple reptilian eyes and gulped accordingly.

"Do you want me to feed you to my pet gorgon, Trevelyan?"

He was quick to shake his head and prostrate himself. "Forgive me, Majesty. I know it is impertinent to speak about matters which are not worth repeating."

"Get off the floor and go out of there and do your job. We may have conquered a measly thirty-eight percent, but our brethren are turning on each other. That world lacks the nutrients we need. We're not adapting as easily as we have done which makes finding a key imperative."

Trevelyan rose to his feet and bowed. "I will see to it, Majesty."

With a flick of her hand she dismissed him.

Settling back on her throne, Queen Keres ran her fingers over the feathers of her grayfalcon. "Darkness once ruled, my love," she crooned at the bird. "We should return things to its former glory. Devour the terrans and move on."

An unexpected shiver coiled down Keres' back causing her to shriek. One of her guards materialized in the room, "Majesty?"

Writhing slightly in pleasure, Keres licked her fingers almost tasting that burst of power that sparked out of nowhere. A spark that was deeply misplaced, but was mysteriously familiar. "It was nothing," she said.

Yet another guard approached, meek in demeanor. Keres sneered.

The guard dropped to bended knee, eyes to the floor. "We found a Traveler, Majesty."

Keres smiled gleefully. One set of eyes blinked and then the other. "Bring him or her forward."

To her delight it was a man judging by his tall stature. He had been blindfolded, hands secured behind his back, and he was forced to his knees. With the tip of her head the blindfold was removed.

Keres rose fluidly from her throne and sauntered down the blue marble steps of her dais, "Not just any Traveler but its king," she snorted flippantly. "Hello Markos."

He took one look and cursed.

Keres stood before him and gripped him by the bottom of his chin, her thumbnail sinking into his skin making him bleed and grunt. "That grudge of yours didn't work out so well against my great-granddaughter…Qetsiyah did it?"

"Unfortunately."

Keres smiled. "Take him to…" she paused and thought. "My lycanhounds could use a bit of exercise."

"Wait!" Markos yelled amid Keres' sinister laughter. "I can help you. I know what it is you want and I want the same thing."

"No honey, we don't share the same agenda. You merely wanted a place for your people to congregate. What I want…you just keep those pretty brown eyes open and you'll see. Take him away!"

Markos was lifted none-to-gently to his feet and dragged out of the throne room. "Keres don't do this!"

Mentally she closed the doors of her throne room and ordered her dinner to be brought forth.

* * *

**Westwego, Louisiana**

"You have to do this, Rebekah. You have to keep your mouth shut," Elijah argued.

The woman in question tossed her hands in the air. "You know how relentless Niklaus can be and though I'm good, exceptional really, at weeding out liars I'm not a very good one myself. He will want to know what's happened to Hayley."

"Tell him _nothing."_

"And what do you plan to do with her? She's not supposed to exist."

Both Originals turned to stare at Bonnie who sat moodily in the front seat. She had awaken twenty minutes ago.

"I'm trying to find her mother," Elijah replied. "I'm about this close to sticking her on a plane and shuttling her off to Virginia."

"Then do it. If Klaus were to find out she's alive and if what you've told me…about what she's done and what you've seen is true…he'll want her for all the wrong reasons. I may not be a fan of Bonnie's but I do know she needs to stay far out of Klaus' reach."

Elijah nodded in agreement. He bypassed his sister, stepped into the open passenger side door of her car, and kneeled down. Elijah cupped Hayley's cheek, her skin frosty beneath his palm. Dark circles had formed under her eyes and her pulse varied between weak and strong. He had no idea what Bonnie had done to her, but not once had she regained consciousness.

"I'll see you when I can," the eldest Original promised. He shot up to his feet and closed the door. "Remember, tell no one about any of this. Get Hayley to a doctor you trust."

Rebekah grumbled as she walked to the driver side of the vehicle. "You forget you haven't given me much to go on to advise this doctor on how to treat her."

"I'll call," Elijah hedged and then within seconds was seated behind the wheel of his own car.

Peeling out of the graveled parking lot of the tackle shop he had Rebekah meet him, Elijah slipped into his thoughts.

"Why are you still helping me?" Bonnie broke the silence.

"Because," he spat and took a deep breath. "The uncertainty of leaving you alone is too risky. You nearly killed two people today, three if you include yourself. And," Elijah finally stared at her, "you're too powerful which makes you valuable and to spare you anymore hardships…you're better off with me." Pause. "I saw your…wings. This may seem like a ridiculous question but are you an angel?"

Bonnie swiveled her head in Elijah's direction. "There are angels and then there are things that rank above them. I'm a Dominion…I'm a keeper of gods."

Chapter end.

**A/N: How did we likely? Before anyone asks, no I don't watch the SyFy show Dominion. In fact I don't know much about it; so if any of my upcoming storylines mirrors anything in canon on that show it's purely coincidence. I promise. So now we know what Bonnie knows about herself. What else does she remember? Besides Damon. And now we have a new player and an old one returning. What exactly will Queen Keres put Markos through? We shall see. Anywho, let me know what you think. Love you guys!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hello loveys. Thank you so much for the continued outpouring of support for this story! Here is the latest. Enjoy.**

Disclaimer: These characters (except my OC's) are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**Mystic Falls, Virginia**

Her heavy sigh reverberated against his eardrum. In that sigh he identified her exasperation with his disbelief and counterarguments, her weariness, and her rising irritation.

"Look, Caroline," Matt persisted, "I know you mean well, but this is crazy and you know it's the exact opposite of what Bonnie would want."

"You're not understanding…"

"No I understand very well," Matt interrupted. "I understand that you want to bring Bonnie back by any means necessary, and that's admirable. However," he deadpanned, "those means are gonna end up costing us more than what we stand to gain. Look at our history."

"All I have to do is find the key. Liv explained…"

"So she's an expert now on other dimensions and bullshit?"

Caroline exploded, "Will you stop interrupting me?! I'm trying to tell you that hope isn't lost, that I can get Bonnie back and you don't even want to _listen."_

"I am listening to you and what I'm hearing is disturbing me. Caroline, I just want you to_ think_. Think about what Bonnie had to do in order to lower the veil to the other side. Thirty-six people were killed. What do you think it's going to take to open another door to a theoretical dimension? We've been given so many chances, far more than what some of us deserve. So at what point do you think the universe or whoever is going to say _enough_? I'm tired of death, Caroline."

On her side of the world, Caroline rubbed her forehead furiously not wanting to give an ounce of credence to Matt's words. Yet she couldn't deny their truth even if she tried. Thirty-six people had been sacrificed and twelve of those people she had single-handedly led straight to their death. That was something that had played on the strings of her conscience to which Caroline brutally shoved aside because her mindset remained the same: she did it to save her friend. A friend she lost for the second time and only wanted to make things right.

But in making things right how far would she have to go and not only that, but what would she have to do? Who would have to die in order to bring Bonnie back from the dead? What acts would she have to commit to reverse what happened? How much more blood was she willing to sully her hands with? And like Matt said, what if the universe, powers that be said NO? Those were questions Caroline periodically asked herself but none she had the courage to answer.

Matt's phone beeped and he saw he had an incoming call from Tyler. "Care, hold on a sec. Tyler is on the other line." Matt switched the call "Hey what's up?" he listened. "What?" he listened some more. "You're joking right?" he began pacing. "I don't believe this. Where are you now? All right. I'm on the way. Did you let Alaric know? I'll call him." Pause. "Are you sure though? Okay, let me tell Caroline. I don't believe this." Matt rerouted back to Caroline. "Hey, how fast do you think you can make it home?"

"Why?"

Matt burst out into a fretful laugh. "Tyler just called me and told me…he said Damon's alive. He's with him right now."

"_WHAT_?" Caroline screeched. "He's alive? How? Why?"

"I don't know," Matt moved through the former Lockwood mansion, and snatched up his car keys about to make the hour long drive to Whitmore.

"What about Bonnie?"

"I don't know, Care. Just get back as soon as you can. I'm on my way to the dorms."

"I want details, Matt. Updates. Don't leave me out of the loop."

"I won't. Just get home. Do you have any way of getting in touch with Stefan?"

"No, the last time we spoke he called me from a payphone in Iowa. Guess they still have those there. But that call came months ago so there's no telling where he is now. Damon is alive," Caroline reiterated questionably.

"I know. I'll call you."

"You better."

They hung up at the same time. Energy and something else, maybe fear or apprehension began to percolate in Matt's heart. His stomach on the other hand twisted into knots as he jumped into his truck, started the ignition, and peeled out of the driveway. He called Jeremy, told him what was going on, and heard dishes shattering to pieces on the tile floor of the kitchen at Mystic Grill. The _new _Mystic Grill.

"Is Bonnie with them?" Jeremy asked urgently.

Matt shook his head and said, "Tyler didn't say anything about Bonnie. Damon may know where she is. I'm on my way to Elena's dorm. Try to get there as soon as you can."

"I'm already out the door."

_"Where do you think you're going?"_ Matt heard the manager ask in that nasally voice of hers._ "You're still on the clock."_

"Family emergency," Jeremy tossed out and shuffled through the dining room portion of the restaurant not bothering to say excuse me after shouldering past someone who called him a dick. "Are you sure it's Damon?" he came back on the line.

"I don't know and won't know until I see for myself. I'll see you there."

"He just better have some answers on where Bonnie is. If he came back and left her behind…"

Jeremy's thought trailed off and Matt said nothing since he knew what his brother-from-another-mother was thinking because he was thinking along those same lines. If Damon left Bonnie behind he wasn't going to enjoy his resurrection for very long.

Blindly reaching into his glove compartment, Matt withdrew his registered Beretta filled with wooden bullets.

* * *

**New Orleans, Louisiana**

Bonnie sat wide-eyed seeing nothing presently in front of her as her true vision was locked on something in a world leagues away from this place. She could barely feel Elijah's touch as his hand had impulsively landed on top of hers shortly after he abruptly applied the brakes when a fellow commuter switched lanes without using his turn signal. But the second their flesh connected, Bonnie, mentally moved at the speed of light.

Afraid the sight before her may be cancelled with the slightest movement, Bonnie sat rigid in the leather seat.

Elijah hadn't removed his hand and not for lack of trying, but it seemed his appendage was fused on top of Bonnie's and he was getting residual feedback from her daydream…or maybe it was a memory. As his brain seemingly worked on two different sentient levels, Elijah was able to maintain control of the vehicle as he cruised down Canal Street while partaking of whatever held Bonnie's rapt attention.

_She was walking over a stone bridge headed toward two onyx doors carved in the shape of a woman and a man. Both were seated on thrones, scepter in their hands, crowns on their heads. For a second Elijah could have sworn they moved as if acknowledging Bonnie's presence, but really they continued to stare straight ahead—impassively._

_Bonnie stopped just shy of the male/female pair and laid something down at their feet, an offering of sorts. She grew partially distracted by dark clouds rolling overhead in a purplish-blue sky and a noise—shrieks that increased in volume as time passed._

_The former witch said something in a language Elijah had never heard before, and he did what he could to remember the phase to question Bonnie about it later though he doubted she'd actually remember._

_He couldn't feel what she was feeling, nor could he exactly see her face since he was standing a little behind her. Elijah drew a measured eye over her attire. The gossamer gown she wore was metallic blue that left her shoulders exposed, and her shoulder length locks had been pulled into an elaborate braid. Silver cuffs adorned her wrists and she had a scabbard containing two swords strapped to her back. Even from behind she was ravishing. The dichotomy of femininity and warrior._

_Taking his eyes off her to focus on the doors, Elijah noticed they were opening._

_A fusion of purple light brightened the way and casually Bonnie began to move forward once more though Elijah didn't want to follow._

_But he did._

_The light became all-consuming heating his flesh that he stumbled away, and when he studied his hands, his flesh had been burned off down to the skeleton._

_Bonnie turned to him then and finally spoke, "I told you not to follow me."_

_Then a hand reached out, long and leathery and snatched Bonnie._

In real time, Bonnie gasped sharply while Elijah blinked rapidly and pulled the car over before he crashed.

The two of them shocked for different reasons stared at one another in the dark interior of the car, bewildered.

"What the hell was that?" Bonnie shrieked heatedly.

"You tell me. I was lost in your mind not the other way around."

"That was a piece of my memory?"

"Yes."

"But how…?"

Elijah inadvertently tightened his hand on the steering wheel. There was more to him than super speed, strength, and a regenerative ability that thankfully hadn't been put through too much work over the centuries. Additionally, another talent of his was unlocking memories. It was a skill he developed not too long ago. It being latent and dormant for some time that Elijah hadn't had to use _until _returning to New Orleans.

Reluctantly the Original came clean that he was responsible for tapping into her unconscious mind accidentally.

Bonnie shriveled against the seat feeling exposed. "Please don't do that again."

Elijah's back molars ground on top of one another. "I won't. It's not exactly a pleasant experience for me either."

Bonnie stared at him askance. "How much did you see?"

"Everything. Do you remember exactly the place you had been, what that…what you were doing?"

A furrowed brow was his reply. "It doesn't make sense to me but I vaguely can recall I had to walk through those doors. Why?" Bonnie shook her head. "I have no clue."

Taking a trip inside Bonnie's mind seeing firsthand a glimpse of the world she lived in for who knew how long, in a way helped Elijah understand her a little better, but just opened another can of worms.

She said she was a keeper of gods, a dominion. Had the place she been venturing into…was that her post? If it were that didn't seem like a relaxing place to be. And she went there armed with only two swords to fight or police creatures he had probably never seen before? Was that what awaited them all now that the Other Side no longer existed, or would they simply stop existing entirely?

Elijah could say he never really thought about his own mortality even in the midst of his immortality. He lived hell everyday. And if there was a place that existed that was much better, he doubted with all his crimes against his kin and humanity he would be permitted to go.

Bonnie could only say taking a trip inside of her own mind had shaken her. She hated the fact she remembered so little and what she could recall none of it had been good or positive. Here she rode shotgun in a car with the man who had ordered her death as if he were ordering a meal at a restaurant, and yet he was watching after her in the best way he could, given the circumstances. She knew there was one person possibly out there who knew her and was hopefully searching for her, and this person Bonnie trusted more than anything, but alas she had no clue where the hell he was.

She just wanted this nightmare to end. However, cues here and there whispered in her ear her life had been like this prior to her death where only one person seemingly cared about her welfare. She had since been reborn. Yes, because the Bonnie this man claimed to know, Bonnie felt little connection with her.

An insurrection ensued where Bonnie wanted to jump out of the car and run for the hills, but the rational part of her thought that would be unwise since she was unfamiliar with the land and the people in it. Despite her disadvantages she wanted to flee.

"Can you let me out?" she ganger to try to convince Elijah to let her go.

"No. What is it going to take for you to understand it's not safe for you to be on your own?" Elijah momentarily took his eyes off the sights in front of him to slightly glare at Bonnie. "You _think _I want to keep you against your will? Your powers are out of whack. Your memory fares no better. How far do you think you can make it before you come across someone who may or may not have good intentions where you're concerned? And remember. Not everyone is a vampire like me."

No reply followed for a second or two and then Bonnie said, "If I managed to put you on your ass I'm sure I can defend myself."

Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose, a sure sign his patience was fraying at the seams. "Where are you going to go? Hmm? _Where_?" he snapped, losing his composure. "You don't know this city like I do, nor anyone in it besides me."

Bonnie momentarily became distracted with the clusters of people milling about. Men and women were dressed to show off their best attributes in clothing that molded to their bodies. Hardly anyone was dressed liked her. She frowned at the too big shirt that was horribly wrinkled, and the briefs that exposed too much of her thighs. It wasn't until now that vanity began to creep up on Bonnie and she hated she was out in public dressed like a vagabond. She shifted uncomfortably. But he was right. Bonnie was picking up on things but not in a fast enough pace for her to be on her own and navigate her way through this world without guidance. Looked like she was stuck after all.

Elijah said nothing as he eased back into traffic.

The city was getting prepared for Halloween. The pumpkins, bales of hay, jack-o-lanterns, laminated cut outs of ghosts, skeletons, goblins, burning candles, fake cobwebs, and the Grim Reaper were plentiful.

As they continued east, the hair along Bonnie's arms began to prickle. An innate sensory alarm they were driving _toward _trouble when they should be retreating in the opposite direction.

As they came to a rolling stop at a light and a horde of people crossed the intersection, one person stood out to Bonnie and she tracked that individual.

He moved as humanly as those around him, but there was something about him that clearly wasn't human. And no it had nothing to do with his Mohawk frosted at the tips, or the fact he was wearing shades in the dead of night. It was the energy surrounding him cackling—or lack thereof, that he nearly faded in and out of the here and now. As if he were using every last bit of his concentration to remain corporeal.

Bonnie didn't know him, obviously, but he seemed familiar.

"Do you know him?" Bonnie motioned with her head toward the man. "The one in the leather jacket with the peculiar hair?"

Elijah searched for the person Bonnie was mentioning but he didn't see anyone. "Who?"

She boldly pointed at the guy. "He's right there! Almost at the other side of the street. How can you not see him? His hair is formed into spikes on top of his shaved head."

Once again Elijah peered through the crowd and didn't see anyone fitting that man's description. "I'm sorry but I'm not seeing this person."

Bonnie huffed and had a mind to hop out of the car, but it jerked forward. She twisted in the seat keeping her gaze locked on the man.

He stopped on the street corner, apparently staring right at her. He lowered his shades and his eyes swam mercury.

Too stunned to make any noise, Bonnie wilted against the seat. Maybe she should get some rest or demand Elijah let her out of the gotdamn car because on top of starting fires with her mind, napalming a house, she was now seeing people who didn't exist. Had he been a ghost?

Or maybe she was seeing the in between? Was that even possible?

Moments later they pulled up behind a storefront where Elijah told her to wait for him in the car. Bonnie pensively bit her thumbnail constantly checking all windows and mirrors expecting…to be ambushed? She sighed.

The night was eerily quiet. The air unnaturally still. Green eyes dashed to and fro, on guard, unable to rest. Bonnie had no earthly clue where Elijah had gone or what he was doing that couldn't wait until sunrise. She didn't like being back here alone where the only comfort came from flickering florescent lights and the steel machine she sat in.

Impatiently, Bonnie tapped her foot and as her own nervous energy began to make her adrenaline climb, she got out of the car.

Luckily the alley was well-lit but it still made Bonnie's muscles tense. Nothing good could ever be found in shadows.

Wrapping her arms around her, Bonnie thought again if now should she make her escape.

"_You are like a delicatessen of veins and arteries where every single blood cell is infused with the sweetest nectar sure to have your taste buds shriveling from sheer pleasure."_

Bonnie whirled around to face the direction of that voice and saw nothing. Nothing stood at the far end of the alley, but it was more than apparent she wasn't alone.

"I felt you…hadn't felt anything that's made me feel alive in centu_ries_," the suffix of the word had been grotesquely exaggerated to sound like a hiss from a snake.

As lightly as she could, Bonnie tried to ease away, walking backwards to the other outlet in the alley. "If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away," Bonnie warned pulling on bravado she didn't think she had.

Bonnie now stood at the hood of the car, and right when she was about to turn and run as fast as her legs could carry her, she made the mistake of spying at the other end of the street one last time.

A figured stepped out of the shadows giving Bonnie an unobstructed view of the unknown man who was leering at her.

She expected to see the strange man from earlier. Instead this strange man had pale skin, hair as dark as oil, eyes blue like the sky and for a moment Bonnie thought she was staring at the face of her herald. A face she had been trying to conjure since gaining a few memories. Bonnie gasped loudly as relief flooded her system. Her mouth opened to speak but his name…shit what was it?

Bonnie couldn't remember his name but she remembered…a trait of his that she may have called him?

"Fearless?" she said.

The man stepped closer blurring that image with the face of reality. The pale skin remained. But the black hair vanished and in its place was that Mohawk, and those blue eyes became pools of mercury. Dread warmed Bonnie's belly. No, that wasn't Fearless. That wasn't her herald and if anything that stranger looked like he was ready to dine on her blood and floss his teeth with her entrails.

He flew at her just as Elijah exited the store with two large shopping bags in his hands.

Second one, he saw someone moving determinedly toward Bonnie. Second two, the being disappeared from his sight. Second three, Bonnie charged forward in a sprint. Second four, she disappeared. Second five, they both reappeared as Bonnie flung the man by the collar of his jacket into an adjacent wall knocking several bricks loose. He folded to the ground like a wet piece of paper.

"Gotdamit," Elijah seethed, dropped the packages, rushed over.

By the time he made it, Bonnie had her attacker's shirt balled into her fists, brought him to his feet and slammed his back deeper into the wall.

Her eyes burned sapphire to Elijah's shock and her wings appeared only they were different. _Much _different. The quills looked like rows of daggers. Bonnie plucked two and stabbed them clean through the man's shoulders pinning him to brick. He cried out, blood dribbled from his mouth, and he stared at Bonnie murderously.

"_Who are you_?" Bonnie questioned in that undecipherable foreign language.

The man negated to answer but did try to remove the winged daggers from his shoulders, only for Bonnie to stab him in each wrist rendering him completely motionless.

Elijah stood back in awe but also barely resisting the urge to take over the interrogation. The predator in him wanted out. Clawed at its cage sensing a possible mate within range. He took a healthy step back since Bonnie didn't really need his assistance.

More words were exchanged and Bonnie didn't appear to make any headway with the man. Elijah stepped in and twisted the dagger protruding from the man's right shoulder. He hollered. Then laughed tiredly.

"Answer her," the Original growled impatiently.

"Who I am is not nearly important as _what _I am," he replied.

Bonnie interjected. "So what are you?"

"What the hell are _you_?" he challenged.

"Dominion," Bonnie fired off. "Your turn."

"_Sceadugenga_ and that's all you're getting from me. Either kill me or let me go."

"And hurt other people I'm afraid I can't allow that," the glow in Bonnie's eyes brightened to almost nuclear levels. She muttered a single word.

The man croaked loudly. His head lolled to the side, his skin became desiccated and he burst into a cloud of ash.

Bonnie pulled the daggers from the wall having the foresight not to leave them behind.

She strolled past Elijah, gaze rapt on him. He couldn't stop staring.

"Still think I can't look after myself?" a corner of her mouth lifted as Bonnie continued on foot but she wasn't walking back to the car. Her deadly wings disappearing from sight with each step taken.

The Original caught up with her, wrapped his fingers around her arm, and jerked her to a stop.

Her eyes had yet to return to normal, her skin was feverish to the touch, but for some inexplicable reason Elijah couldn't just let her walk away.

Bonnie looked at the hand detaining her before staring at the man himself. "Let me go, Elijah. I don't want to hurt you but I will if I have to."

He seemingly ignored her as he quickly stuffed Bonnie in the car, retrieved the bags to toss them in the trunk, and sat behind the wheel leaving Bonnie little room to protest.

The both of them never saw the extra pair of eyes watching.

Palming the steering wheel, Elijah pulled back out into bustling city traffic. "I have no doubt you can hurt me. It would be foolish of you to try, I should caution."

His speech wasn't delivered coldly but matter-of-fact. Bonnie shook her head as she massaged her temples. One of many things she despised was feeling helpless while being at someone else's mercy. She was intelligent, however, she lacked the necessary street smarts at the moment to get herself out of this particular jam. A jam that wouldn't exist if she hadn't fallen.

_That's right_, a lightbulb went off on the top of her head. She fell. Why the hell would she do that?

Incensed at her own impulsive behavior, Bonnie's hand went to the door handle and she tried to jerk it open. Nothing happened.

Elijah's lips curled a bit at Bonnie's futile attempt to flee. "_Sceadugenga_," he muttered partly as a distraction. "I've never heard that term before."

"Neither have I," Bonnie volunteered.

"Whatever it means it was evident that man was vampiric in nature. I saw his fangs…his eyes though…another mystery. You?" Elijah took his eyes off the road to glower at his passenger.

Bonnie questioned defensively, "What about me?"

What did he want to say that would be adequate? For the moment Elijah was lost for words which was rare but did happen occasionally.

He was almost at his personal residence in New Orleans when Bonnie sighed.

"Maybe you're not the insane one. Maybe I'm insane," she turned watery, verdant orbs on Elijah. "I should be terrified. Terrified of the things I've done. Terrified of the person who sanctioned my death and instead…I want to crush your head and others like a grape."

"Well, you've proven," Elijah pulled into the driveway of his home, "you're the only one who can probably succeed in that regard."

"Was I always like this?"

"From what I've seen during our brief…acquaintance… you had no problem, no hesitation in taking on enemies much bigger and deadlier than yourself and shelving your fear away. Having spells and magic at your disposal, you never needed to use physical violence against anyone. What you did tonight, the Bonnie I remember would have been impressed. Just as I am."

"I'm not trying to impress you."

"I know but I'm still in _awe_ of you, Bonnie."

That made her stomach flutter.

Elijah opened his car door. "Welcome to my true home."

* * *

A bag was placed into her hands and she was thus led to a room in another house with multiple floors, narrow passageways, wooden furniture, and parquet floors covered in Aubusson rugs.

Elijah shrugged out of his suit jacket draping it across the back of his couch but forewent loosening his tie. He entered the kitchen and peeped inside the fridge noticing his liaison of sorts Mozelle had fully stocked it. Stocked it with food he didn't particularly eat, which spelled Mozelle knew he would have company. She had claimed several times through years of employment that she was psychic, and for the first time ever, Mozelle turned out to be right.

The Original let the refrigerator close with a soft thud. He'd let Bonnie pick out what she wanted to eat. Moving over to his wine rack, Elijah grabbed a bottle and popped the cork. He was too thirsty to allow it to breathe for the appropriate amount of time.

Elijah felt he had lived twenty days in the last two. Mentally he compiled a list of things he'd have to do come morning. Call Henri and Marguerite and deliver the unfortunate news about the house they oversaw being destroyed to pieces. This headache would consequently lead to making phone calls to insurance adjusters, contractors and the like haggling over the cost of building material. Next, check in with Rebekah to see if Hayley's condition by some miracle had improved. Then possibly dealing with his brother should he get wind of it because Klaus never remained in the dark about anything for long.

Elijah's ears were already bleeding just at the thought of it.

Filling a goblet with wine, once taking a sip and picking up the bottle, Elijah trekked back to the living room where he stopped.

Bonnie was approaching. She had shed his shirt which drowned her sprite frame, having replaced it with a formfitting short sleeve black T-shirt. His boxers had been exchanged for a pair of skin tight fashionably rippled jeans. Her feet were bare; her hair tamed and fell about her shoulders, long bangs covering her left eye.

Should someone be allowed to look so fetching in casual clothes without a hint of makeup, Elijah wondered as he took a deliberate sip of wine watching Bonnie over the rim of the glass.

That tension was back. A marked presence that made Elijah's ear pop. Stirrings of hunger comingling with an absurd desire whose root origins began in the irises of a once dead prodigy, almost caused Elijah to crush the wineglass to pieces.

He would think himself alone in that department but he wasn't. Not entirely. Bonnie had taken note of Elijah's attractiveness, but it had been a fleeting thing that grew and ebbed in a quagmire of uncertainty. He was handsome with an unforgettable face. Textbook debonair. Yet knowing the truth behind that face dulled its appeal slightly for Bonnie.

Her skin prickled out of a new type of awareness. Elijah had proven that he wasn't one to simply lie on his back and allow people to walk all over him. Execution came as easily to him as blinking, and she at some point had been on that list. This knowledge battled against the caring nature he illustrated with her and that girl she had hurt.

Bonnie hadn't wasted too much time thinking about that other woman or what she meant to Elijah. She had serious problems on her hands. Nevertheless, those peeks into Elijah's character made Bonnie curious.

Once she became aware that the two of them were merely appraising one another, Bonnie diverted her attention.

"There's food if you want to eat something," Elijah cleared his throat.

"No, I'm fine. What are you drinking? Is it blood?"

"Close…if you consider the juice from grapes as blood. Would you care for a glass?"

Bonnie made a non-committal gesture with her shoulders and ventured over to the chenille sectional sofa where she had a seat. In five seconds Elijah joined her, pouring a glass of wine and passing it over to Bonnie.

Their fingers overlapped one another. Bonnie kept her gaze firmly planted on the glass while Elijah never looked away from her face.

Tentatively Bonnie took a sip, the alcohol burned her tongue and throat as it made its journey down her esophagus. It was strong, sweet at first but bitter upon swallowing. Perhaps it was meant to be accompanied with a dish high in sodium and protein? She didn't know very much about wine.

Bonnie couldn't stand the quiet. She asked suddenly, "Is there a library here? I'd like to look up what a sceadugenga is."

"There is but I can tell you right now you won't find anything in my library that'll point you in the right direction. I have something better. Wait here."

Elijah flashed up to his bedroom, retrieved his laptop and had it booted and running by the time he returned. He did a Google search for sceadugenga.

"From English folklore it's the shapeshifting undead," he read from the screen.

"Lovely," Bonnie deadpanned. "What was it doing here?"

Elijah cracked his knuckles. "That I don't know," this was just one more thing he would have to have Selene and her death dealers look into.

"Do you always wear that uniform?" Bonnie switched topics.

"A suit?" Elijah stared down at his starched shirt tucked neatly into his graphite pants. He smoothed a hand down his tie. "Yes. I do own a pair of jeans," he quipped.

An arched brow lifted, "Just one pair?" Bonnie queried.

"After wearing breeches and tights I prefer clothing that's a bit more dignified."

Making herself comfortable, Bonnie settled along the couch at an angle. "So what do you do when you're not feeding on people?"

"Who says I feed on people?"

Bonnie gifted him with a perfunctory look. "You're a vampire. Don't you need blood to survive? Or do you skip the whole draining the life out of strangers because you have a donor?"

"I drink when necessity demands it and I only take what I need," Elijah quenched his roaring thirst with a gulp of wine.

"You wouldn't classify yourself as a run-of-the-mill vampire?" Bonnie furthered her investigation.

"No," he said. "There are run-of-the-mill vampires and then there are Originals."

"The strongest of the strong. Can only be killed by white oak."

Elijah halted in taking another sip from his glass, "You remember that?"

Shrugging, Bonnie replied, "Always know how to defend yourself against an enemy."

"You see me as your enemy?" Elijah tilted his head curiously. Having enemies was par for the course. Having friends, that list was much slimmer in Elijah's case.

Bonnie hedged, "Well you're not exactly my friend. So what do you do?"

"I'm an entrepreneur of sorts."

"Sounds like you don't have an occupation, but you have money. Money I'm sure that's made through less scrupulous means."

"I do what I must to survive."

"If that doesn't sound shady," Bonnie snorted. "Back to the suits since you don't want to open up about what you do. Do you wear them like a…clergyman wears robes? Are you trying to project something?"

"I'm not a saint, Bonnie. I do my best not to be a total monster. It's an everyday fight against your nature and only gets more difficult with time because the longer you live the farther from humanity you seem to get. The suit humanizes me in a way that I feel I can no longer imitate or project. I can smile at people, put on airs but my thumb can cause as much damage as a bullet through human tissue."

Bonnie took his words into consideration. "Does it scare you?" she murmured. "Knowing how much hurt and pain you can inflict on someone?"

Elijah sat forward to place his wineglass on the table prior to resting his elbows on his knees. "Does it scare you? You're a keeper of gods. I imagine that's not easy."

"It's not. And it doesn't scare me. What does, is this power and authority falling into the wrong hands. A weapon isn't so bad unless your enemy gets to it first."

Elijah smiled in appreciation at the analogy. "You're very much changed from the girl I remember."

"Maybe because I'm no longer _just_ a girl."

"True. I've lived for a thousand years and I've seen extraordinary things that shouldn't be possible, but I've never encountered anyone like you."

"Did you read that in a book somewhere? That sounded like a line," Bonnie teased and drank her wine. It traveled up to her head which then trickled down to the rest of her extremities, warming her, uncoiling her muscles.

"Perhaps," Elijah smiled faintly. "Do you want to talk about what happened tonight? I saw you disappear and reappear as if you made yourself invisible. Your wings…"

And that's where Bonnie shut down. She couldn't explain how she had been able to do any of the things she had done since this morning. It came naturally to her, surprised and scared her stupid. However she wasn't shunning it, hiding from her abilities whatever they may be.

"Not right now," she avoided and scratched her arm. "It's late and whatever I've been doing…it's drained me."

Elijah didn't believe that. Bonnie's eyes were much too bright and alert for someone claiming to be exhausted. As he moved a bit on the couch and his knee crashed into hers he suddenly became aware of the fact he had unwittingly moved closer to her. A divot formed between his dark eyebrows in stupefaction.

That notorious dimple formed above Bonnie's left eyebrow. "What do you think you're doing?"

Elijah cupped her cheek despite the warning not to. "I don't know." He just knew he needed to touch her if only to reaffirm she was real and he hadn't been killed in the last twenty-four hours without his knowledge.

Bonnie slid her hand on top of Elijah's and then before either of them knew it, they were tumbling back into the far recesses of her mind.

"Oh."

* * *

**Whitmore College**

_Finally!_ Spending the longest hour of his life with Tyler Lockwood concluded and Damon wanted to kiss the pavement in relief. Instead, he opted for unloading his weight from the car ignoring the lingering ache in his spine from his fall.

He craned his neck to stare at Elena's dorm. It was the same exact dorm she lived in during her freshman year. Damon wondered if she was still living in the same room. Though much had changed it was unsettling but also pleasant that something's had remained stagnant. Damon's feet wanted to pound up the stairs under some foolish notion that once he reached Elena's room, he'd find Bonnie perched on her bed, lips pursed and arms folded ready to chastise him for taking so damn long to get here.

Lockwood followed on his heels as the two men crossed the parking lot, and nearly ran into Damon who stopped suddenly to hold the door open for two girls exiting the residential building.

"Jeeze, Lockwood I know my ass is perfect but can you stay the hell off it?"

"Screw you," Tyler rolled his eyes and proceeded in after Damon.

Once they were inside, Tyler resumed the role of follow-the-leader and took the staircase to the second floor and down the hall to the fourth door on the right. He knocked and planted his hands on his hips.

"It's open," Elena called out.

Tyler took a second to inhale before twisting the knob and pushing the door in.

Elena was seated on her bed, balancing a spiral notepad and her tablet on her legs. She looked up and greeted Tyler with a warm smile who returned it though his seemed strained to the brunette.

"Hey…what's up?" the doppelganger questioned and wondered if she should brace herself for something bad.

"There's someone here you should see," Tyler stared over his shoulder and saw no one loitering in the doorway.

Damon ordered his feet to move, pull the Band-Aid off, and get this over with. Hearing Elena's voice, smelling her scent blanketed him in memories and not all good memories at that. For a second he wanted to forget his whole operation thinking it was a total waste of time. However, he couldn't deny a minute part of him wanted to see Elena in the flesh just to have visual confirmation she was all right and doing well for the most part.

Moving his right foot then his left, he cleared the steps necessary to where he now loomed in the doorway.

Elena ever so slightly shifted her gaze from Tyler to the figure dressed in black. At first the picture appeared to be more of an illusion conjured by her mind since she had spent the last hour getting caught up on her paranormal studies. So that _really _wasn't Damon hovering just outside of her door looking exactly as she remembered him but maybe even better. Nope, that wasn't her ex-boyfriend but merely words on a page translated into a physical mirage of a ghost. Because there was no way in _hell _Damon, _her _Damon the man she loved and cried her heart out for a solid five months after his death was alive!

Tyler stood as the awkward one caught in the middle. He shuffled a little out of the way giving Elena an unobstructed view of Damon. Her jaw slackened as her eyes enlarged past the point of normal. Then her forehead crumbled, her lips widened in a gnarled version of a grimace while the bottom of her garnet eyes swelled with tears. Her hands slowly covered her mouth to stifle a horrific scream that pierced Damon's sensitive ears regardless.

During their tenure as the fucked up Ken and Barbie of rural Virginia, they had never christened one another with any cute nicknames or endearments. Damon might have called her 'baby' occasionally, and Elena may have called him a cocky ass, but they weren't that couple whose affection extended beyond piping hot sex or make out sessions that led to sex. So he could only call her by name.

"Elena."

She thrust out a hand much in the same manner she did when she went ham on him after the 60's decade dance.

"No," Elena furiously shook her head. "You're not real. You can't be real."

"I am. You think a stud like me could stay dead and gone forever?" he smirked knowing his sarcasm would make this moment more real yet also poignant since Damon hadn't had to be _that_ version of himself for quite a while.

Desperately, Elena turned to Tyler. "Tell me he's not real," she sputtered.

Tyler shrugged unhelpfully wanting to hug her but not daring to. "He's as real as you and I are. Trust me after spending an hour with the prick…I can vouch for his authenticity."

That made Elena laugh and she took one step forward willing her eyes not to blink. Another step followed bringing her closer and then she couldn't hold back any longer. She sped over to Damon and flung her arms around his shoulders and burrowed her face into his neck. Inhaling him, reacquainting herself with his natural fragrance and the overt musculature of his frame.

The dam broke and she cried freely and then began kissing whatever part of him her lips could reach.

Tyler studied his shoes.

Damon remained frozen, his arms loosely hanging on to Elena if only to balance her. He lightly nibbled her lips when Elena's slanted over his. Damon didn't take over the kiss like he had done in the past, but he allowed himself just a small taste before catching her wrists and slowly prying her away.

For a second hurt flashed on her face that she quickly shook away. "Damon…" she breathed, "you came back to me."

He came back—yes. He smiled unable to find it in his heart to correct her.

"How are you here?" Elena twisted his shirt in her fingers. The need to maul him was cresting.

"It's a long story."

She gasped sharply, "Ohmygod! Where's Bonnie? Is she back, too?"

"Yes…in a way," Damon's jaw tightened. He sat Elena on her feet and swept into her room.

The doppelganger searched Tyler's face for answers and he again, shrugged. Elena wiped at her tear stained cheeks. "Where is she, Damon?"

He kept his back to Elena. "I don't know but I'm going to find her," he turned to face his ex. "She and I came back together but we were separated. Finding her is all I care about at the moment," he unconsciously fingered the bind on his wrist.

That proclamation stung and the hit had been sufficient to make Elena's breath hitch. But then she got over it and nodded. Yes, finding Bonnie should be everyone's number one priority. Her friend was lost, alone, and probably scared out of her mind. Elena had vowed she would not be that self-absorbed girl she had been two years ago.

Tyler asked, "Do you have any clue where she might be?"

Damon went ramrod straight. He felt it. Another pull, another dose of Bonnie's power and this time it wasn't just anger he was sensing from her, but murderous intent. Cinching his teeth on top of one another, Damon began breathing rapidly. He didn't like this. Didn't like feeling Bonnie but not being anywhere near to intervene. There was no telling where she was or who was around her, but he would know if she were being hurt. At the moment she was doing the hurting and he wanted to clap and cheer, but seeing he stood in front of two distraught individuals, he cooled his features though the rest of him vibrated with impatience.

"Hey man, are you all right?" Tyler narrowed an obsidian eye toward the vampire watching him become distressed.

"What's going on? Damon?" Elena stepped closer and stilled when Damon's head snapped in her direction and his eyes began to burn a lighter shade of azure that they were practically glowing.

Damon snapped his orbs closed, which left a streak of blue in the air, and rubbed his eyes.

"What's happening to you?" Elena stretched out a hand to lay a comforting touch on Damon but hesitated.

"Sorry," he apologized. "It's just…Bonnie I can sense her and she's…she needs me and I'm not there."

Tyler and Elena exchanged glances.

When the surge of power subsided, Damon blinked open his eyes. He needed to find Bonnie and fast and something at that particular moment popped into his head that hopefully would work. "I think I know of a way I can find her."

Chapter end.

**A/N: What exactly does Damon have planned? And where next is Elijah journeying inside of Bonnie's mind? Now I will admit that I rolled my eyes when I first heard about Elijah's new power of recovering memories or whatever because he never exhibited that talent on TVD, but I found it useful here. Oh, and what did we think about seeing this deadlier side of Bonnie? The girl is an onion, layered. If you follow the X-Men comics and know who Archangel is that's kind of what I had envisioned in my mind in terms of what her new, special wings look like. Let me know what you think. Love you!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hi y'all. As always thank you for loving this fic! **

Disclaimer: These characters (with the exception of my OC's) are the creative property of LJ Smith and The CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**Year Three**

_The view was breathtaking. Clouds that appeared like floating mountains made her forget to breathe for one perilous moment. The warm air, the rays of sun beaming from the west turned everything it touched into shades of pinkish-gold. Reaching out a hand, she tried to physically touch one of the gaseous formations but she was simply moving too fast to grab on to anything substantial. The air up here was pure. The sky impossibly blue that her mind could have tricked itself into believing she was swimming in an ocean, and not flying thirty thousand feet in the air. _

_Banking a hard left, Bonnie ripped through the sky like a long, overdue comet leaving a silver Jetstream in her wake. Exhilarating. It was scary and like being on a rollercoaster with no harness, but the freedom it brought was immeasurable. Bonnie thought of her grandmother, wanting to see her, thank her for making it possible for her to be in this place with these gifts that shocked her into speechlessness each time she developed and mastered a new skill. But alas, Grams had made a sacrifice and wherever she was, Bonnie could only hope she was safe and happy._

_Down below, Bonnie spotted the area where she was supposed land and began her descent. She paused in mid-flight, curved her body like an inverted U and began to free dive, arms stretched out above her head, hands clasped together that slowly she broke apart and lowered her arms until they were flattened to her sides. _

_The rolling valleys and deep hills drew closer at an alarming speed that Bonnie pulled up, and did her best to make a soundless landing. She imagined herself falling with the thoughtlessness of a leaf as she sunk down to the earth disappearing beneath the hood of trees. _

_She found refuge in a large sapling landing with poise on a branch no bigger than her arm. Nothing stirred when she made her entry, and the eerie silence prickled her skin in warning. _

_Her aquamarine eyes scoped the immediate area spotting nothing out of place. Everything the sun touched, it glittered like gold. But the shaded land—what lived within was the reason she had been sent. It was the patch of dense forest in which the rays of sun couldn't penetrate that was cause for concern. _

_A seraphim soared through the pale skies carrying out its own search. Bonnie inclined her head; she wasn't alone but it still didn't make this stakeout any less stressful. She took a restorative breath, squared her shoulders and repeated a mantra from her favorite show that helped ease her anxiety:_

"_The sun…the moon…the truth."_

_She did what she could to prevent her thoughts from slinking back to this morning where she and Damon had their first argument since being here. _

_He had gotten it into his head that being her herald meant he could decide which orders she would follow from The Seniores. It wasn't a screaming match or anything that would draw negative attention, but definitely speculation. The back and forth was too reminiscent of how they were in their own world, and Bonnie had vowed never to go back to being that Bonnie Bennett who allowed people to trample over her. She knew Damon meant well, was only looking out for her, but to disregard her feelings on the matter citing she wasn't ready when Bonnie knew she was—irked the shit out of her. _

"_I don't need your permission. Do _your_ job, vampire and let me do mine," Bonnie had stated coldly and left her chambers to report to her post. _

_A whistle of air interrupted Bonnie's musings and she withdrew her dagger. Her stance didn't relax and became even more on edge when the person finally materialized on an adjacent branch. Bonnie's teeth clenched painfully, and she reluctantly sheathed her blade. _

_Avitus in his over-the-top raiment had joined Bonnie who viewed his presence as an insult. News had probably spread about her and Damon's falling out, which of course wouldn't make either one of them look good. If they couldn't act on the same accord, others may begin to question her readiness to tackle on the full responsibility of being a Dominion if she couldn't even handle her herald. Avitus wasn't here to lend a hand but more than likely to witness her screwing up tremendously. Bonnie was certain the man believed she and Damon had no right to be here. _

_She couldn't say she disagreed. _

_It was one thing being a witch on Earth but quite another to be deported to a place she never would have imagined existed if it hadn't been for her grandmother. And this place people were not born by natural means or even with the assistance of biotechnological procedures, but were simply created from a volcano that spewed bluish-green lava. If anything, she and Damon were probably viewed as the unnatural ones. _

_The last thing Bonnie wanted to do with her eternity was prove herself. Now in this moment she really didn't have a choice. _

_Avitus bowed his head toward her before focusing his sharp, dark brown eyes on the landscape. "Not going to ask me why I'm here?"_

_His voice was like thunder and Bonnie forgot how to speak for a second. "I think it's more than obvious why you are. You don't think I can do this."_

_Silence followed her proclamation. Bonnie snorted. _

_There were a few times Avitus reminded Bonnie of her dad and other times where she thought she was staring at Klaus' long lost twin though they bore so physical resemblance to one another. They shared arrogance in common. _

"_I have faith, Bonnie," Avitus said. "It's up to you on how the next few moments will play out."_

"_Thanks for the vote of confidence," Bonnie replied flatly. As much as she wanted to resist, she did want to impress Avitus. _

_She grew as still as stone because something was happening._

_Together the leader of the Dominions and its newest apprentice watched the shadowed land as one shadow in particular converged, becoming a tangible entity. _

_Bonnie shifted as did Avitus. Their gaze fixed on the shape of the malach as it began to ebb through the trees seeking out a host. Bonnie had never seen one prior to this moment, but she had listened attentively to Kirisi who explained what they were. _

_In laymen's terms a malach was a demon. Point blank. They were parts of a whole organism programed to fulfill basic needs but nothing else. They corrupted whatever they inhabited and were pretty much considered the zombies of the demon hierarchy. Her job was to make sure it didn't possess anyone and also to destroy it. _

_Bonnie's hand reached for her serrated dagger but out of the corner of her eye she saw Avitus caution her with a shake of his head. It was best if they made as little sound as possible. That included not moving an inch as the malach became substantial enough to be penetrated and killed. _

_The need to get things moving coiled inside of her belly prompting Bonnie to act on pure adrenaline and instinct alone, but she had to wait for the perfect opportunity. If she acted too imprudently, it could cause the malach to escape and it might be days, weeks, or even months before she was given another chance. _

_The seraphim circled up above ready to act as a last resort should Bonnie fail. _

_She crouched into a defensive pose, her hand resting on the coarse surface of the tree bark. Avitus mimicked her action, bending gracefully, hardly making a single sound._

_Suddenly the rhythmic beating of hooves caught their ear causing Bonnie and Avitus to bare their teeth. They watched for a second as a rider and a horse sped through the valley completely oblivious to the danger waiting among the trees. _

_Without thinking, Bonnie jumped from her perch, feet barely making a dent in the earth as she took off. _

_She constantly checked for the malach's position while closing in on the horse. The demon which was nothing but a series of jerky movements that was still in the process of taking on a concrete shape, filtered itself through the trees, changing course and trajectory abruptly._

_Her lungs weren't burning and neither were the muscles in her legs. Bonnie planted one foot completely on the ground before she launched her body through the air, sailing toward the hooded rider. She tackled the rider off the horse, protectively tucking the person to her side so that when they landed she would take the brunt of the fall._

_The ground exploded into big and small chunks when Bonnie's shoulder made impact. She clawed her fingers deep into the earth to stop their momentum. The twosome came to a jarring halt causing the hood of the rider to fall off revealing the shocked face of a young woman. _

_The two gaped at one another. This girl…with her sable hair, rosy cheeks and dimples appeared to be no older than fifteen, sixteen at the most but what Bonnie didn't understand was why she was here? _

"_What are you doing here?" Bonnie demanded. "Who are you?"_

_The keening noise of the horse distracted her for a second. She awkwardly twisted her neck to see the animal struggling to free itself from the malach. It had grabbed a hold of the horse's back legs and was dragging the poor beast within its depths. _

_Bonnie fixed her gaze back on her temporary problem. _

_The frightened expression on the girl's face morphed into a biting smile before taking on its demonic appearance. Sunken in soulless eyes, snarling mouth with several rows of pointy teeth glared hungrily down at Bonnie who began to struggle in earnest to get away._

_The demon rolled over Bonnie pinning her to the ground. _

_But Bonnie was having none of that. With a blast of psionic power, she sent the demon hurtling away from her. She kicked her legs over her head and bounced to her feet. Taking out her sword Bonnie ran with blistering speed toward the horse and swung her arm in a low arc cutting off the tentacles of the malach. It shrieked painfully, howling and the sound made Bonnie's teeth grind._

_Something slammed into her knocking Bonnie to the ground. It was that demon chick aiming for her neck. Third times a charm was the saying but Bonnie wasn't looking to end up on her back again. The second time would be the final time. _

_The two struggled for dominance, throwing punches that made Bonnie's ears ring, and her organs quake. Locking her fingers behind the demon's head, Bonnie pulled it down as she reared up, using her cranium as a weapon. _

_White light burst behind Bonnie's lids when her head made contact with the demon's chin. It slumped to the ground and Bonnie hastily crawled away. Clumsily, the former anchor pushed to her feet. She lifted her arm, flicked her wrist, and sent the demon hurtling into the forest where the malach went after it. It wasted not a second wrapping its vapor-like tentacles around its own kind, consuming the girl as if she were a rat and it was a snake. _

_Bonnie unsheathed her blade and threw it aimed primarily for the heart. It struck its intended mark and the demon with its malach brother in tow burst like fireworks into shards of particle and matter. _

_Finally she took a breath and wanted to vomit and pass out._

_Avitus landed next to Bonnie. "You didn't lose your head," he folded his massive arms over his breastplate. _

"_Was I supposed to?" she countered. "I learned from the best and the best is Kirisi," she bent her knees and shot toward the sky. _

* * *

"Excuse me," Bonnie shot up from the couch as the dizzying amount of information provided in that memory came careening back.

Elijah crawled back into his own head sitting slumped on the couch staring into nothingness.

Her courage came as no surprise since he had firsthand, eyewitness accounts of it when she was no more than seventeen years old. Her strength was something to marvel at as well as her beauty, but for whatever reason, Elijah had found himself gravitating toward feeble Elena. Why? When he always had a great affinity for women who led armies but didn't need one to fight their battles for them.

Could strength make one blind to the strong itself? Had he seen something in Bonnie when they first met and that was why it was so easy to disregard her and latch on to what he perceived to be a challenge? Those weren't questions Elijah ever found himself contemplating, but between himself and this new, improved version of Bonnie Bennett he wasn't the strongest and that made him…made him feel momentarily displaced.

Her strength notwithstanding, she was still vulnerable.

The Original was uncertain about how much time had passed but when he finally snapped out of it, he decided it was time to get his ass off the couch. He began flipping off lights, restocked the near empty bottle of wine, and dropped the two glasses in the kitchen sink.

With that finished, Elijah strummed his fingers on the countertop. He wanted to check on Bonnie, make sure she was all right.

Elijah followed the tempestuous sound of her beating heart and found the young woman standing on the brick laid veranda staring up the sky. Lightning flashed intermittedly deep within the clouds. The heady perfume of rain permeated the air which had turned chilly and the wind-brisk. Another bad storm was in the works and on its way.

"Bonnie? Come inside. It'll be raining soon."

She didn't move or appear to have heard him. That's because she didn't. Another memory surfaced.

_She stood waiting for someone in a cemetery, arms rigid at her sides, the wind strong enough to blow her sideways but she locked her knees and refused to budge._

_Bonnie spun when she heard someone approaching. A woman with waist long blonde hair, a look of apprehensive concern marring her features. Automatically Bonnie thrust her hand out. "Lexi it's your turn."_

"_This is killing you isn't it?" _

_The question gave Bonnie pause, Grams' words coming back with the force of a high speed train, "You won't survive all those people going through you, Bonnie."_

_Tears stained her face as she implored Lexi, "I can hold on. I have to. Just come through."_

"Bonnie?"

That voice didn't belong to the woman Bonnie was imagining standing in front of her. She was knocked out of the memory and finally began to feel the elements around her turning her skin into ice.

Elijah watched as Bonnie turned to face him, her eyes dropping to his outstretched hand.

Back in the cemetery as she literally stood on the Other Side Bonnie had never felt more alone despite the ridiculous amount of people who had gone through her for over two hours. No one had understood except for that brief moment, the toll being the anchor was taking on her, and that with each crossover it brought her one step closer to death.

Holding on was all she knew what to do. Hold on to the scraps that had become her life, her cross and hope for the best. Love drove her to insane lengths for those she had freely given herself to, but what had been the payoff? Pain and suffering.

Seeing Elijah with his hand held out washed away—if only temporarily—that loneliness she experienced being the bearer of the weight of misery and agony brought on by death. For a second it seemed someone cared about her well-being, and it filled Bonnie up with warmth and hope. For once someone wanted to help her and it wasn't the other way around.

Bonnie walked woodenly toward Elijah and slipped her cold hand in his. He pulled her gently toward the darkened house.

His mind raced but he didn't say anything when they slipped indoors. Bonnie was miles away though still living in the now.

"No one understands you, do they?" he asked. "I would even say I don't believe they ever did."

"You do?" Bonnie stared up at him.

Her eyes were glowing but hadn't changed from their natural emerald color.

He shook his head. No, he didn't understand her. The differences between them were vast, the similarities—though few were there as well. What could he have in common with this girl who used to be a witch and then became an anchor and was now a Dominion? What traits did they share that could explain whatever this feeling was coiling in his belly whenever he looked at Bonnie or saw a snippet of her memories and experienced them with her?

Elijah had his own life that came with its own set of problems and the last thing he needed or wanted to was entangle himself further in Bonnie's puzzle. But he couldn't help to say he was finding himself being drawn to her.

Until he came across Bonnie stumbling wet and disoriented back in Lafayette he hadn't given her a passing thought. She probably hadn't thought of him either and why would she? Now he couldn't _unsee_ her.

They made it to the staircase. Bonnie planted her back along the wall across from it. Elijah didn't move. He saw her shivering and cupped her cheek noting just how truly cold she was.

Bonnie peered up at him from her awning of lashes, eyes glowing freakishly as if a literal light shined through them. Unconsciously, the pad of his thumb decided it wanted to familiarize itself with the curve of Bonnie's lower lip. It followed the rim from corner-to corner and back again. When he made a second journey his thumb paused in the middle of her lip and he felt the barest hint of her breath flow over the tip of his finger. That sensation crawled up his arm, curved around his shoulder with the dexterity of electricity.

Elijah's stomach bottomed out and he snatched his hand away and put a modicum of space between them.

"_She's barely twenty years old for Christ sake," _he admonished himself, cleared his throat and straightened his posture. He wasn't a dirty old man.

Bonnie had no idea what was going on. Only, she felt flushed and inexplicably hot. From a single touch, from a simple fondle of her lip. It hadn't been right and if her herald had been around Elijah might have lost his hand. Her cheeks burned and she lowered her head feeling embarrassed because she really liked his touch though she knew she shouldn't. Considering he was the mastermind behind her mother—whoever she was and wherever she was—now living as a vampire.

She observed in perplexity as Elijah emotionally shut down right before her very eyes. The light in his orbs turning flat, his mouth firm and grim, his posture inflexible. He didn't want to feel for her more than he had to and Bonnie felt the same way. But…

"You should get to bed, Bonnie," Elijah mouthed brusquely, turned in his dress shoes, and zoomed upstairs.

* * *

**Whitmore College**

No matter how hard she tried and believe her she tried with everything in her arsenal not to gawk, Elena couldn't stop staring at Damon. Devouring him with the greedy thirst of a fangirl at Comic Con with front row seats, she couldn't and refused to blink or even really pay attention to the conversation taking place. She just couldn't believe he was alive and standing in the same room with her.

Inches separated them and it might as well have been miles for Elena. He had only spared her the briefest of glances. The doppelganger hadn't been able to discern anything more than an ounce of fondness. None of the smolder she had aptly titled 'Damon Heat' beamed from his eyes which led her to question what was running through his mind.

Hell, Elena was surprised she still had her clothes on and Damon had been in her room for over an hour! Granted, they weren't alone and he didn't appear to want to change that either. She was single, though occasionally went out on dates that never went anywhere.

A minuscule amount of guilt gnawed at Elena because she and Tyler would see a movie or try a different outdoor activity, and she found herself having a good time. But it wasn't anything serious or had been slowly working its way to being serious. At least not to her.

Her heart still very much belonged to Damon and the ache between her legs and the tingle in her breasts were signs that everything else about her had remained loyal to him as well.

Damon had a mind to rub the side of his face to check for holes and craters. It was a good thing shooting lasers from one's eyes didn't fall to vampires or else Elena would have pulverized his face by this point by how hard she was staring.

Jeremy and Matt had arrived within minutes of one another, jaws hitting the floor the second they saw Damon in the flesh. They didn't greet him with hugs nor had Damon dispensed any. He acknowledged them with a slight head nod and continued on with the discussion at hand, which kept getting interrupted every time a new face entered the room.

When Alaric arrived he had wrapped Damon up into a reluctant bear hug which made the elder vampire wince. He had forgotten Ric died being a literal vampire hunter and had been vouchsafed the strength of an Original. But Damon in his humble opinion was still much better looking and stronger. Overall, he was glad to see his friend.

If only Stefan were around.

Everyone found seats where they could while Damon opted to remain standing, his eyes occasionally wondering over to what could have been Bonnie's bed.

Jeremy noticed and he narrowed his eyes not having a good feeling about this.

On paper, Bonnie and Damon had been gone for a year and a half, but wherever they ended up, did time pass the same there or could one day equal a hundred years in their alternate reality? If the latter was the case how close did they get?

Jeremy's eyes dipped to Damon's hand—the left. He relaxed somewhat noticing the only ring on his finger was his daylight ring. But Jeremy could say he was curious about that scrap of lace fabric attached to the vampire's wrist. Damon's daylight ring being the only adornment he ever wore, Jeremy wondered about the significance of that bracelet.

It never escaped Tyler's attention that Damon evaded answering any questions about what he and Bonnie had been doing or where they were. He couldn't really tell if Damon was lying about Bonnie being back to soften the blow that they never died together, and she no longer existed while the universe in some cruel joke or twist of irony spared his life and not the girl who gave up hers _twice _for her friends.

His knuckles curled into a fist and the wonderful relief of them popping simmered down Tyler's rational yet irrational anger. He couldn't stand the way Elena was barely keeping her shit together and resisting the urge to tackle Damon to the ground and getting Biblical with the guy. In his opinion, she wasn't showing as much concern for finding Bonnie or learning what happened to her after the fall of the other side. It kind of seemed like a kick in the face the time they spent together where he put his schedule on hold to pick Elena off the ground because everyone else got tired of doing the job. Was she so willing to throw that progress away and go back to being single-minded Elena Gilbert who only cared about her own happiness?

The judgment pouring off the humans was heavy and getting on Damon's last nerve. They could be upset he wasn't regurgitating facts about his adventures with Bonnie. Taking a trip down memory lane wouldn't help find her.

"So this big idea you have on finding Bonnie," Alaric began, "mind filling in the rest of us as to what it is?"

"Gladly," Damon huffed. "Instead of trying to track down a witch to do a locator spell I thought bringing in some nerds who are good with hacking might do the trick. I didn't just arrive here via the snap of the fingers. I fell in laymen's terms like a meteor and I'm hoping that image was caught on a satellite camera—the ultimate selfie by the way—and if I made a blip on a radar I'm hoping Bonnie did as well."

Furtive looks were tossed around as that info sunk in.

Alaric took the lead once more. "Satellite images? Sounds ingenious and expensive."

"And what do you know, I have a no limit credit card right here," Damon tapped his temple. "I just need keys and a willing participant to let me borrow their car."

"Mine!" Elena hurriedly volunteered bolting to her feet and snatching up her keys. "You can borrow my car. In fact, I can come with you."

Damon turned to face her. Elena dropped her keys in his hand, curling her fingers around his. Her brown orbs were so open he could see her thoughts forming, bridging words and images together sharing everything she had bottled up for months, popping the cork.

He would have gladly paid cash for the removal of his left nut for Elena to stare at him like that and here he was receiving it free of charge. His hand of its own volition curved to her cheek.

Matt and Tyler shifted uneasily. Alaric watched with his eyebrows raised, and Jeremy looked partially relieved and ill.

Damon spoke in a dulcet tone, "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything," Elena fused her sight to Damon's mouth.

"Stay here and try to get in contact with Stefan. Let him know his dashing older brother is alive."

Her world crashed and the cloud Elena was riding on disappeared. "But…"

"Alaric?" Damon never removed his gaze from Elena who was beginning to glower at him. "Feel like being my wingman?"

The former teacher-hunter shrugged. "I got shit else to do at the moment. Let's go find Bonnie."

Dipping his head, Damon placed an almost fatherly kiss on Elena's forehead, and then he was strolling out the door with Alaric fast on his heels.

Once outside and away from a more than likely fuming, jilted vampire, Alaric shook his head and chuckled a little.

"Elena is going to have your balls for dinner."

Damon's lips twitched. "If memory serves me correctly, she can't stay mad at me no matter how justified she is in her anger. I think I'll be all right."

"You can't use that against her, Damon," Ric chastised, his earlier playfulness gone. "That girl was a wreck, worse than probably when her parents died and over _you _no less. Not saying you don't deserve a little mourning, but for a while we all thought she might commit suicide to be reunited with you despite there not being a guarantee on where she'd end up. She didn't care, man. That's how far gone Elena had been."

Hearing that gave Damon considerable pause. He winced and stopped walking. Alaric followed suit.

"You used her feelings for you to manipulate her, and yeah it might be for a good cause but she's probably feeling used and unimportant by the man she loves."

Damon planted his hands on his hips—scowling.

"It's obvious," Alaric went on, "that you care a great deal about Bonnie or you wouldn't be going through this much trouble to find her. However, if your feelings for Bonnie are stronger than what you feel for Elena, then don't lead either one of them on."

A visible tick hammered in the blue-eyed vampire's jaw. "You done? I don't need a lecture on where I should rest my loyalties, _Ric,_" Damon bit out caustically. "And as for my feelings when it comes to either Elena or Bonnie, they aren't your gotdamn business. My life ceased being a teenaged melodrama a long ass time ago."

Alaric held Damon's heated glare taking note of the fact Salvatore was getting bigger, larger. That drew the hunter up short and he took a self-preservative step backwards.

"Fine," Alaric relented. "Simmer down."

They continued their stroll to Elena's car.

"Prick," he hunter muttered under his breath.

"Missed you, too sweet lips."

"Damon, hold up!" Jeremy yelled as he sprinted across the parking lot to catch up with the two vampires.

Damon rolled his eyes. One could almost forget how annoying Little Gilbert was until he opened his mouth and tried to insert himself where he didn't belong. "What do you want?"

"I'm coming with you."

The vampire laughed dryly, "No, you're not."

Jeremy boldly stepped into Damon's personal space refusing to back down. Physically he was bigger than Damon but naturally couldn't really hold a candle to him when it came to strength. His days of cowering before the blue-eyed hellion were over.

"Bonnie is _my_ girlfriend," Jeremy asserted. Three horizontal lines appeared on Damon's forehead as his eyebrows lifted. "I think that makes me qualified to go and guess what? I don't need your permission," he shouldered past Damon and climbed into the backseat of Elena's Escape.

Alaric tried to suppress his chuckles and snatched the passenger side door open.

Damon nodded while the corner of his mouth turned down. Sure, Scooter could come but he would find himself ditched on the side of the road if this all panned out.

Three hours and four compelled guards enjoying a game of Poker later, Damon spread the satellite images over the hood of the SUV. He saw a blurred image of a ball of fire headed for Utah while an hour later a second ball of fire was captured headed for southwest Louisiana.

"Can we be sure this is Bonnie?" Alaric asked over Damon's shoulder.

Damon knew it in his gut. "It is," he folded the printouts and tucked them into the back pocket of his jeans.

"Then let's go," Jeremy rallied the troops.

Damon tossed the keys to Alaric. "I need to check something before we go. Get the car started."

Not waiting for a reply, Damon sped away to a nearby gas station that was about two miles from the weather station where they pilfered the images. It had been a while since he had stolen anything for the sheer pleasure of being a kleptomaniac.

Just his luck, a guy pulled up at pump and left his car running as he dashed inside. Damon flashed his way to the idling vehicle, climbed behind the wheel, stomped on the gas and peeled away.

A cell phone began ringing startling Damon. He answered it and had to pull the device away from his ear due to the litany and voracity of foul language assaulting his hearing.

"Sorry, I promise not to scratch it," Damon said and chucked the phone out the window. He had maybe an hour before the cops would be on the lookout for this car.

Pressing the accelerator to the floor, Damon gunned it heading south.

* * *

In the immaterial was where gods and monsters were rumored to battle and in so created a schism—a trophy of sorts resulting in endless death in the fight to control it.

That same schism was viewed as a beacon, a honing device that led astray sentient beings daring them to choose a side. Caught in the middle of this were humans, most who were ignorant of the dangers lurking in unseen places making themselves susceptible to attack at any given moment. But what these humans failed to realize was that they had invisible guardians ready to step in between them and certain death. Sometimes the campaign was successful and many more times it unfortunately was not.

They had many names—these guardians. In some cultures they were referred to as guardian angels, in other principalities, or Gollum's.

One such being abandoned her post, her curiosity getting the better of her. Ire had felt the shift, the impact of one like her but more than her. At first she had been quick to write it off because there was no reason for a Dominion to ever come here, but yet one had arrived in her backyard and she saw it fit to seek this being out.

What she saw last night proved her theory, but the Dominion…Ire wasn't sure but she was fairly positive something was remiss. The Dominion's power was great, no question there, but the vessel itself was severely weakened.

Ire's search led her to a remodeled antebellum house on the outskirts of New Orleans. She wouldn't risk getting any closer to the property to avoid detection. Ire's teeth clenched on top of one another when she spotted that pompous hybrid Niklaus Mikaelson stroll to the residence and make his way inside. Everyone in the natural and unnatural knew who he was.

As much as Ire would love to help it wasn't her place. And this was where having restrictions on what she could do bothered her. Dominions by all standards were not mortal and principalities could only aid in the assistance of mortals. Coincidentally, she had identified small traces of mortality in the Dominion which made her brow knit together in consternation. There were no such things as hybrid Dominions. So what exactly was going on here?

Dominions oversaw the galaxies and those which were not mortal so prey tell why was there one here on earth?

Expulsion came to mind and if that were true she must have committed some egregious offense. Ire slipped away to resume her own duties but not without throwing another glance at the residence.

The first thing to smack Klaus Mikaelson in the face the second he entered his older brother's abode was the smell. An amorous perfume that was not human and unlike anything he had the pleasure of smelling before. He could only assume it might be a new type of flower Elijah discovered but seeing no floral arrangements in sight, that hypothesis was ruled out.

Next came a heartbeat like a hammer. Stronger but a little slower than a typical human heartbeat. Feeling compelled to find the source, Klaus took the stairs to the second floor and walked down the opposite end of the hall from Elijah's bedroom. The heartbeat pounded steadily and loudly in his ears and he eased the door to the guest bedroom open.

There in the center of the bed was a lump and whoever the person was they were very small. Klaus stilled when Elijah's houseguest rolled over in bed.

The hybrid's eyes stretched in surprise and became hooded moments later as a devious smile crept along his face.

Bonnie Bennett was alive and living with his brother who made no mention of this the last two times they conversed. Klaus tsked internally. He would have to remind Elijah what happened to people who chose to withhold information from him. Especially information of _this _magnitude.

He stood next to the bed though Klaus couldn't exactly recall moving. His hand of its own volition reached down to stroke Bonnie's cheek almost wishing she would sir, but she continued to sleep soundly.

"What are you doing here?"

Klaus stiffened and looked over his shoulder and smiled at Elijah who appeared none too pleased to see him. "You've been holding out on me, brother."

Elijah flew in the room, grabbed Klaus by the lapels of his jacket and vampire sped the two of them outside.

Klaus didn't even blink or groan when his back made contact with the siding of the house. He laughed. "I thought the time for us keeping secrets from one another had passed, Elijah and yet here you are keeping one of this extreme importance."

"I wasn't keeping anything from you, Klaus. Bonnie is not of your concern."

"But she's of yours? Care to explain how she's alive and what the hell she's doing here and _with you_?"

"The beauty of our relationship, Niklaus is that I don't have to give you a play by play recap of my life. You only need to know what I deem you worthy of needing to know. Now why the fuck are you here?"

Klaus smirked. It wasn't often Elijah resorting to swearing and when he did it always tickled the hybrid because it sounded off. Elijah was much too refined and never let anyone forget it so for him to resort to tossing out obscenities, a nerve was obviously pinched. And who would have thought that nerve would be Bonnie Bennett, the hybrid gloated. As far as Klaus knew Bonnie meant nothing to Elijah and vice versa.

The woman in question arrived at the back door, rubbing her eye, and looking delightfully rumpled.

Bonnie blinked her eyes until the scene in front of her became clear. She switched her gaze between Elijah dressed only in his pajama bottoms and another man fully clothed who was leering at her.

"I'm sorry," she squeaked. "I heard voices and…"

"It's okay, Bonnie," Elijah refused to let go of Klaus. "Just go back inside and get dressed."

She didn't move right away. Klaus frowned wondering why she was studying him as if she didn't know who he was.

"Go," Elijah ordered firmly before Klaus figured out her aliment.

Bonnie backed away, closing the door.

The two brothers faced one another. Klaus thrust Elijah away from him and straightened out his leather jacket.

"Keep your secrets, then," Klaus growled. "If you two are planning something against…"

Elijah held up a hand cutting his little brother off. "You're not that important to kill this week."

Aqua eyes narrowed into slits. "Be that as it may, let me just go ahead and tell you why I'm here."

"Finally," Elijah muttered.

"Tonight is round two of negotiations with the Werewolf Queen. She's not letting up on this ridiculous notion of a betrothal between the two of us. Have you found _anything _during your travels that would tempt her, or should I be forced to marry this broad and give her half of the city?"

Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose. "I'm still working out the logistics. It's going to take weeks. So until then, play nice and stop killing her allies."

Klaus snorted. "Tell them to stop coming on my property in the middle of the night. A man has a right to defend what is his. I'll see you tonight at the club," he began to walk away but stopped and pivoted to reface Elijah. "And where the hell is Hayley?"

"Out of town with Rebekah," Elijah lied smoothly.

Klaus rolled his eyes. It wasn't uncommon for those two to pull a Thelma and Louise and he wouldn't expect to see them for at least a week. "Give my regards to Bonnie. In fact, bring her with you this evening."

"Out of the question," Elijah trumped that suggestion more like command.

"You forget, brother…my city, my rules. _Bring_ her," Klaus resumed his stroll to his car opting to take the brick path around the house, "I'd like to hear how she's alive and why she smells so gotdamn mouth-watering."

Elijah's jaw ticked. Yeah, he didn't need any reminders of one of the reasons he hardly slept last night.

* * *

Sunshades on, sitting behind the wheel of a black Chevy Camaro, Damon sipped from a blood bag he lifted from a hospital in Tennessee.

His hand tightened on the steering wheel as he passed a road sign telling him he was less than two hundred miles from New Orleans. Two hundred miles was still too many in his opinion, and though he had no proof Bonnie was there, the stirring in his gut proved otherwise. And if she were, let her _not _be anywhere near those fucking Originals.

He picked up the burner phone and punched in a number he didn't think he remembered.

* * *

Elijah locked the front door after his exit. His jacket buzzed and he reached inside his suit pocket to retrieve his cell phone. He frowned at the unknown number, hit the ignore button, and tucked it back into its pocket.

Bonnie turned and waited for him. He offered a smile and kept his eyes above her neckline. Looking below might prove detrimental to his health.

"Are you sure you want to go?" he asked for the hundredth time.

"I might as well stay close to you, right? Besides, what can happen?"

_A lot_, Elijah held off on answering. Merely led Bonnie to his car, and opened the door for her.

She slid inside the leather interior tossing up a timid smile.

Beauty was about to party with a beast.

Chapter end.

**A/N: So what do we thinky? Damon is getting closer, Klaus is sniffing around, and Elijah is well, trying his best not to be affected, while Miss Bonnie's memory is coming back one painful piece at a time. Moment of truth next update? Thanks for reading! **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: It's here. The chapter Bamonators have been waiting on. Thanks, lovelies for the awesome reviews! Enjoy!**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW. All OC's belong to me. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

New Orleans was the kind of city that was built with night in mind. Everywhere one looked there was the possibility of something bad lurking in the shadows. He loved the smell, the sights, the sounds. He loved how you could get sex for the right price. How voodoo and religion clashed or melded together. He loved that haunted cemeteries were more popular than renovated plantations.

Yes, New Orleans was his kind of town. It was where life beat in time with the undead fraternity. And they were always looking to increase their numbers.

Vampires did not have a pack mentality. There was no such thing as loyalty amongst bloodsuckers. If you were lucky, out of hundreds, a thousand, a vampire could find his or her match. A companion to waste eternity with. He could not, in good faith, say that was his primary goal.

Feeding came first. It would always come first.

With his back up against a wall, shades covering his eyes though it was the dead of night, Gideon Crosse chewed a stick of gum before checking the time.

It finally stopped raining which meant the streets would be flooded with locals and tourists. The temperature wasn't nearly as frigid as it had been the last few nights, and the prospect of taking blood here and there and everywhere made his saliva glands swell whilst his fangs threatened to rupture from their confines.

Absent-mindedly he rubbed his stubble covered jaw before yawning. He was impatient for the night to get started.

A group of scantily clad women strolled down the avenue, each of them throwing him furtive looks, but only two had been bold enough to cat call him.

Gideon offered a crooked smile that made one of them trip in her sky high heels which led to her companions bursting into coarse laughter.

He catalogued their scents just in the off chance he failed to find a suitable dish to dine on. It was always good to have backups, a contingency plan. His friend, his only friend really had taught him that shortly after he transitioned.

Just as he spared the debonair fucker a thought, Gideon spotted Elijah's black Mercedes speeding down Canal Street.

Curiosity piqued, Gideon began to track the car, flying down the avenue, wind ripping through his blond hair.

Elijah turned a corner without applying the brakes and Gideon knew where he was headed. By the time he turned that same corner, the Mercedes was parked in a private parking lot behind Klaus' jazz club. Gideon observed as Elijah stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the passenger side of the car, opening the door.

A woman rose from the car and Gideon could swear she was glowing. The air around her seemed to thicken to where he could visibly feel it, something akin to humidity during the summer. A prism of light encompassed her from head to toe and began vibrating.

Gideon vaguely sensed that his face had changed abruptly. It only happened when he went days without feeding and caught the barest scent of blood. He couldn't explain his inexplicable hunger only than to say he was staring at something that was truly divine, and the fiend in him wanted a taste curious if her blood may purge his sins. Gideon scoffed at his own pious thoughts. His feet carried him silently across the pavement, his intent locked on the glowing, bronze girl.

He slipped into fantasy mode daydreaming about sinking his fangs in every major artery of the girl and exsanguinating her. Quizzically, this warred with the notion he should duck and cover because her divinity went in hand with one's annihilation.

Gideon was willing to take his chances.

Out of his peripheral, Elijah saw someone advancing on them—Bonnie specifically. He acted without conscious thought.

He shoved Bonnie back into the car, rammed his palm dead center into the man's chest which sent him flying, but Elijah caught up with him, executed a roundhouse kick that landed in Gideon's lower abdomen and sent him careening into a light post snapping the metal object in half. The light fixture loosened and shattered once it hit the pavement.

By the time he came to and saw what he did, Elijah shook his head.

"Gideon what the hell are you doing?" Elijah demanded and walked over to the man.

"Me?" Gideon cried out as the one-sided fog cleared from his mind. "I was minding my business a couple of seconds ago before you tried to take me out."

Elijah extended his hand and hefted the vampire to his feet. Gideon dramatically brushed broken glass off his shoulders. His gaze narrowed even as he unheeded the firestorm taking place behind his ribs. Getting hit by an Original made getting run over by a car akin to a tickling fest. He unfortunately had experienced the latter as well.

"Apologies," Elijah murmured and directed his attention back to his vehicle where Bonnie was blatantly staring at him. She had gotten out of the car. "I have to go."

"Go and not share?" Gideon tsked.

The Original stiffened and graced Gideon with a scowl noticing the drugged expression taking over his countenance once more.

"You wish to live to see another moonrise I suggest you go about your way, Gideon. I'm only going to tell you that once."

Gideon remained unfazed. "I'll commend you on your control, Elijah. That girl she's like…she's…um. How can you stand to be around her and not want her neck in your mouth every five seconds?"

Elijah's back molars ground on one another. Test and trials he was not adverse to them, but his thirst—that was another matter altogether. That had never been a true problem. Until recently.

Bonnie surveyed the two with interest. Something about this seemed…elusively familiar. Someone wanting to defend her. Someone getting in the way between her and a threat.

"_She's not doing it. That's not what she came here for. Have you lost your fucking mind?" _

Breaking out of her musings, the two men now stood toe-to-toe.

Gideon made another bold move to fly after Bonnie, but when his neck was thus caught in a vice and viciously snapped, well that cancelled those plans.

"I'll see you later, Gideon." Elijah smoothed his hand down his tie and tucked it back into his suit blazer. He strode purposely over to Bonnie, caught her around the wrist. "I knew it was a mistake to bring you here."

Gideon was a little over three hundred years old and if he couldn't control his thirst around Bonnie, then the younger vampires wouldn't stand a chance.

"He wanted to kill me?"

Elijah's tense jaw was the reply to that query.

"Maybe we should go," Bonnie suggested. "I don't want to be here if people are trying to kill me."

The rear door of the establishment flew open and several of Klaus' loyal entourage stepped out, fangs bared. The one in charge, Taraji who was often referred to as Storm because of her physical similarities to the comic book heroine cleared the distance, her ebony eyes barely glancing at Gideon's body. She pointed two fingers for someone in her detail to get rid of it.

"Elijah, you're late," she greeted him curtly.

"I'm here am I not? But I'm leaving."

"No, can do. The Werewolf Queen is inside and she wants to have a word with you," Taraji pursed her full lips and finally looked at Bonnie, sizing her up before disregarding her a second later.

"Fine," Elijah huffed seeing no way out of this without pissing off the Queen or his brother. "I'll be there in a minute. Take Gideon someplace discreet."

"It's handled," Taraji pivoted in her boots, her shocking white hair flying with her movements.

Elijah waited a beat until he and Bonnie were alone. He faced her, her brow furrowed with concern. "We won't stay long, all right. Do you remember what I told you on the way here?"

She nodded. "Your brother is a hybrid and I tried to kill him a couple of times."

The Original's lips twitched. "And if he asks you any questions about where you've been or your friends in Mystic Falls?"

"I'm to say that I don't want to talk about them or myself because it's none of his business."

"Right. If we're separated for any reason or you find yourself with someone you're not comfortable with, come find me immediately. I know you can protect yourself, but there's no need to let others know about your abilities. Understood?"

Again, Bonnie nodded.

"Do you think you might be able to…how can I put this…tone down your aura, so to speak?"

"What?"

Elijah knew the question would sound absurd the minute it left his mouth, but he still needed to ask anyways. Petitioning Bonnie to make herself small was like asking the sun not to be hot. "Just…do nothing to draw unnecessary attention to yourself."

Garnet orbs of their own volition dipped below the young woman's neck, and Elijah's chest tightened.

Bonnie was decked out in a mini-dress with long sheer embroidered sleeves, but the sheer embroidered pattern continued along her silhouette while black leather encompassed the other. There was no way she could be wearing panties and Elijah did what he could not to obsess about that tidbit of knowledge.

Blindly he reached for Bonnie's hand who didn't waste a second sinking her slender fingers into his. Inhaling deeply, Elijah led the way inside. Something told him he was going to have to break a lot of necks tonight.

* * *

**Huntington Beach, California**

It had taken him a long time to get comfortable with water. Placing his hands in it, trusting it to douse his head when he showered, hearing it run from a faucet, even seeing it poured innocently into a glass.

Being the Ripper of Monterey, watching his girl fall in love with his brother hardly any of that could compare to spending three months locked in a safe that was thrown into the bottom of a quarry. Drowning repeatedly. Stefan Salvatore would take his heart literally being ripped out than dealing with the pain of choking and suffocating on water.

Surviving death three times, losing his brother, it numbed him. Temptation was a distraction, he knew that but Stefan had been tempted to turn it off, to let everything go, fall to the wayside. He had immorality but he didn't have Damon or Lexi—two people he's known the longest in the world. Hell, he didn't even have Katherine to fall back on and for a time he loved her. Well at least when he was human he loved her though he didn't trust those emotions.

Elena had her problems and needed help he couldn't give. Caroline did what she could to be a base of support, but really, whenever Stefan looked at her it was like a picture of Lexi's face would try to superimpose on Caroline's, and it hurt being around her.

Luckily he had been spared having to stare into Jeremy's sad eyes knowing the boy lost his girlfriend for the second time. A girl Stefan knew he should have been a much better friend to, protected better.

It was all just too much.

So he fled. Packed enough clothes to tie him over until he found a place that didn't make his skin crawl, or fly into a rage and slaughter everything in sight.

Ironic Stefan would find himself living along the California coastline, and that his favorite thing to do would be night swimming.

The tide crested over his head, foams of bubbles bobbed on the surface and he glared up at the full moon. Stefan closed his eyes and dove back under the surface and remained underwater but resurfaced once acute panic began to rise.

He erupted from the water and headed toward the shore. The moonlight glinted off the silver of his daylight ring, the only other object besides memories he held of the past.

For a long time after Damon's death Stefan did nothing but get into fights and came close to being staked. His life was a mess and hardly anything made sense. Blood didn't taste the same, sex couldn't take the ache away, nothing worked.

Whenever feelings of self-loathing would start he'd think about Damon and how he'd probably kick his ass if he did anything monumentally stupid.

Besides, if he met with the sun without his ring or staked himself, or got into it with another vampire hoping for death, it would be like spitting into the face of what Damon and Bonnie did to bring him back. Stefan couldn't do that to them so he lived with the pain bartering it with alcohol, overthinking, and bartending.

Stefan landed a job at a dive bar. The tips were lousy, the girls were plentiful, beautiful, and the guys for the most part were laid back. Despite being confronted with the same scene every night, Stefan enjoyed the monotony because it was so different from the life he led in Mystic Falls and it was what he wanted, what he needed.

Pushing his hair back, Stefan made his way to his house. Drying his feet on the rug, he strolled through the patio doors and quickly hopped in the shower. Once finished, he loaded his stomach with blood, drank half a bottle of whiskey, put on his uniform which was really a fitted black T-shirt with the bar's logo imprinted on his left peck, a pair of jeans, boots, and he was out the door firing up his motorcycle.

The bar was only five miles from his house and he arrived with ten minutes to spare.

He swaggered inside, smirking at the early arrivers—college aged blondes who watched his every move. One of them called out to him prompting the vampire to stop and kiss her cheek. He winked at the others and moseyed onward.

Stefan stashed his helmet behind the bar, clocked in at the register, and went through his routine.

The regulars had figured out a while ago not to engage him in conversation because he wouldn't elaborate, and if you couldn't take the hint he wasn't up for purging his sins, the death glare he'd send your way would hammer in the message. Naturally his mysterious charisma made him popular with the ladies, and when Stefan was in a generous mood or didn't want to be alone with his thoughts or demons, he'd take someone home with him, show the lucky lady a good time, and send her packing by morning.

He only had to use his strength when the lone bouncer couldn't make it, or to lift cases of beer and other liquor. Other than that, Stefan lived an ordinary life.

Lou, the owner, was a six foot redheaded Amazon who had been trying to get into his pants since day one. When he attempted to compel her to leave him be, he found out she was a Druid. Stefan cursed his luck because he had wanted nothing to do with anyone who was supernatural. But he needed a job, something to distract him. So he got over his own aversion.

Tension still lingered between them although they came to an understanding, but Stefan never said more to Lou than what needed to be said.

He bobbed his head to "Free & Lonely" by X Ambassadors, mumbling the lyrics under his breath while he tied the short black apron around his waist.

The caramel-haired vampire smelled his boss a full minute before she popped up behind the bar.

"Early tonight aren't we?" Lou roamed her eyes from the crown of Stefan's head to his feet, repressing a shiver.

He shrugged.

"We're having an open bar tomorrow since the place is being rented for some celebutante's birthday party."

"All right."

Lou rolled her auburn eyes. "You do know that you'll be making a fixed fee tomorrow and won't be earning any tips?"

Again, Stefan shrugged as he wiped down his space and arranged the bottles of liquor to his liking. "You know I'm not desperate for money."

Lou continued, "I have a new person starting. Can you show him the ropes? His name is Enzo."

Stefan who had been wiping perfect circles on the bar top, froze, and slid his gaze to Lou. "Enzo?"

She nodded and arched a brow having heard the slight growl in Stefan's voice. "You know him or something?"

Sighing, Stefan resisted pinching the bridge of his nose. Of course there had to be more than one obnoxious Brit immortal that had a knack for picking up and throwing things during a tantrum with that name.

He shrugged.

Lou wanted to shake him but tempered her exasperation. "He should be here within the next half hour. Be nice, open up your mouth and answer whatever questions he may have. He said he's tended bar before but you never know. Based off your recommendation will determine if he'll have a future here."

"What future?" Desiree, another fellow bartender snorted as she clocked in. "Everyone who calls this dump home knows the only way to get out is to find a sugar daddy or mama or die," she tossed a fake smile and headed to the employee lounge to lock up her purse.

Desiree was Hawaiian and prickly and Stefan actually liked her though he's never really had a conversation with her. Or more to the matter their talks consisted of making sarcastic remarks about management and asshole customers.

"Yeah," Lou muttered, "it's gotta be a full moon if everyone is on time or early for their shift. Your trainee just walked through the door."

Stefan hesitated a moment before taking his eyes off his task and directing his vision to the front of the bar.

Life, as Morpheus said, isn't without its own sense of irony.

"Hello handsome," Enzo winked at Stefan who wanted to flip him the bird. "Long time, no see."

"Not long enough. What are you doing here?"

Lou watched the two men interact trying to reach her own conclusion. Were they former lovers?

"Keeping my end of a promise," Enzo stated and moved behind the bar where he strolled up to Lou and shook her hand.

"I guess I won't need to make introductions," she deduced.

"No, you won't. Stefan and I," Enzo clapped a hand on the vampire's shoulder, "go way back."

"Well, all right I'll leave Stefan to show you the ropes. If you have any questions for me I'll be in my office."

Once she disappeared to bark more orders at the waitressing staff, Stefan shrugged Enzo's hand off him and promptly returned to his duties. He pulled out a cutting board, knife, and retrieved limes from a mini-fridge. "I don't need a baby sitter."

"No one said you did."

"So why the hell are you here? I'm not going back to Virginia."

"Well you might after you hear what I have to tell you. I received the most interesting call from Caroline."

Stefan perched his hands on his hips. "I don't care."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Damon won't be surprised to hear what a bint you've turned into."

Stefan blinked as slowly as possible. "What?"

"Your brother…he's alive."

"What the fuck ever," Stefan dismissed the claim with a flick of his hand. "If you're done trying to play with my mind, let me show you how to clock in."

* * *

**New Orleans, LA**

The narrow hallway was highlighted with changing lights switching from one hue of the rainbow to the next that led to a sinner's paradise.

Dark mahogany tables were evenly spaced apart with several different sized candles perched atop. The walls were painted crimson, the floors hardwood. Wooden ceiling fans whirled lazily. A fully stocked bar was to the right, the stage across from it where a band played music Bonnie was sure she had heard before. The place was simple but opulent at the same time. Understated but the money went into the details such as the crown molding where angels and beasts had been carved into the woodwork.

Elijah led them to a staircase to the second floor. Bonnie's eyes were stretched to their max because several people were congregated in the area, many of them laughing, talking, drinking, and a few were even kissing. One couple Bonnie found it impossible to tear her eyes from. The woman was adhered to the wall, her left leg hiked up the man's leg while his hands were glued to her ass.

Elijah ignored everything and continued down a hall that branched off from the mezzanine. Once reaching the end, he pressed his hand on a panel and a secret door opened.

He ushered Bonnie inside.

Already assembled was his brother, Marcel, the Queen and trusted members of her entourage.

The Werewolf Queen's hazel eyes brightened once they landed on Elijah in his black suit, white shirt, and gray tie.

"Ah, Elijah so glad you could join us," she shifted her focus to the small girl hiding partly behind Elijah. "You brought me a gift?"

Elijah reached for Bonnie, placing his hand on the small of her back to guide her forward but made sure she went no farther than his side. He rested his hand on her hip, her warm skin burning his palm. "She's quite a gift but not for you."

"Well, who is she? I half expected Hayley to be on your arm."

"My name is Bonnie," the young woman in question spoke up after feeling Elijah stiffen beside her. Right, she had hurt his friend. She meant to apologize about that. And what was all this gift business about?

Bonnie had never seen a real queen before. She supposed this woman could fit the description of one. She was beautiful in a classical sort of way that would cause people to do a double take, but was also forgettable.

Her skin was the color of molasses with rose undertones which matched her cinnamon hair that was cut into layers. The queen's forehead was broad, nose slightly too long for her face but didn't make her look odd.

There was a scar that ran diagonally across her neck and Bonnie was curious how she got it, but understood it would be rude to ask. The Werewolf Queen didn't look very powerful or even majestic, but she sure made the men in the room nervous. Maybe that had more to do with the silent, robust sentinels standing in opposite corners of the room.

"Bonnie…Bonnie what?" the queen urged.

"Just Bonnie."

The Queen grinned. "Well _Bonnie_, I'm Inez Laurent Beauparlant…the true queen of New Orleans, pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too, your highness," Bonnie felt ridiculous saying that.

Klaus pulled his lips back from his teeth at that statement. Sure, in Inez's mind her ancestors may have been the _real_ founders of New Orleans. It had been a bloody time back then; things were lost in translation and it was all a moot point to the hybrid. He controlled the city.

Marcel Gerard snorted under his breath. Now, hopefully Klaus understood what it felt like to build something, create an empire, and have someone show up believing it was theirs to take, apologies, your feelings, or even common courtesy be damned.

His mahogany eyes slid over to Elijah and the young woman he brought with him. She was very beautiful and distracting. Marcel straightened in his seat and pretended to be engrossed in the long-winded drivel that had been going on for the last hour or so. Klaus wasn't going to give anything up, and the only way to get it was to pry it from his cold, dead hands.

And since the motherfucker was invincible it wasn't likely to happen. Things had calmed down since the witches called off their war for the quarter, and here was this self-righteous werewolf bitch wanting to lay claim to the city. Would this power struggle ever come to a foreseeable end? Marcel didn't think so.

Inez circled her finger around her mouth before biting the tip. "If she's not here as a gift then that means she can be excused while we talk business," she waved her hand in a shooing motion.

Bonnie frowned and had a mind to teach the woman some manners but Elijah escorted her to the door.

"Wait for me. I'll be with you in a minute," he promised and shuffled Bonnie out.

Bonnie opened her mouth to protest but found the door closing in her face. Talk about rudeness.

"Klaus," Inez eyed him. "I've heard what you had to say and now that Elijah is here, I want to hear his spiel. The rest of you are free to leave."

Klaus, Marcel and the others rose from the table and bottlenecked to the door. Klaus slapped a hand on his brother's shoulder communicating silently with him to save his ass and spare him from an empty marriage.

Elijah made no such promise aloud or implied through visible cues.

Inez didn't utter a single word, using the clicking of the closed door as her signal. She waved a hand at an empty seat to which Elijah sat down at the other end of the table.

She folded her hands one on top of the other. "I know you want to avoid conflict, Elijah but these negotiations can't go on any longer. My people are ready and waiting and they will infect your contingency one vampire at a time. I've spelled out my terms and yet your brother continues to drag his feet on this."

"You have to understand why, Inez. The burden of proof lies on you, not him. Your family hasn't called New Orleans home in over a century. Old records have been lost, stolen, or burned. You claim your family held the original deed to the city, we merely want verification."

"I don't have to verify anything to _you_. Take a tour of any museum in this town, listen to any historian and the proof you're seeking lies with them. My family built this city while yours merely moved in, colonized, and tried to call it your own just like the fucking British. You can rewrite the books anyway you like, but it doesn't erase the truth."

"So your final proposal is…if my brother refuses to combine our two families and give you the industrialized part of the city, which of course produces more revenue, its open war?"

Inez hunched a shoulder and sipped her beverage. "I'm only interested in preserving history, Elijah and sometimes history is built on a pile of bones."

Elijah cracked his knuckles. "And marriage is the only way to do this?"

"It's binding and a failsafe to make sure everything is split fifty-fifty, plus I'm old fashioned."

"Give us another week to deliberate, then."

"You have twenty-four hours."

"_Ma chere_, be reasonable," Elijah implored. "Give us a week. What is waiting seven days for an empire?"

"When you've already been waiting for hundreds of years, seven days is an eternity," she retorted then sighed. "Fine. You have another week and I _expect _an answer in the affirmative. If not, you'll see what happens to those who waste my time."

Hopefully in seven days, Elijah thought, he'd have a remedy to this disaster.

* * *

Bonnie opted to remain on the landing after she had been politely but briskly dismissed from the room. The idea of going out and having some semblance of fun had been exciting if not terror-inducing because she wasn't sure of what to expect. But being looked at like a prized stallion, a showpiece, and almost being attacked was not exactly what she had in mind, and she was ready to leave.

The music was too frenetic and busy for her ears, the crowd too boisterous.

Her skin prickled and when she turned her head to the left Bonnie wasn't terribly surprised Klaus was approaching.

"Can I offer you a drink, love? It's on the house."

"No thank you," she went back to people watching.

Klaus, when he stood no less than a foot away from Bonnie, leaned his elbow on the wrought iron railing and stared intently at her profile. On the surface she looked no different from the last time he laid eyes on her, but it was plain to see she _was _different, changed. She wasn't a witch and she certainly wasn't the anchor. The lover of knowledge within him wanted answers.

"So how is that you're alive? The last time we talked you confirmed the other side was falling apart and yet," he waved a hand in her direction, "here you are?" his hooded aqua eyes fed on her attire and Klaus unconsciously bit down on his lip.

Bonnie shrugged. "I can't explain it because I don't know either. Looks like we're in the same boat."

"So no resurrection spell was cast?" the hybrid prodded.

"Not as far as I know."

"And you decided upon being alive that New Orleans is the place for you and with my brother."

Bonnie threw Klaus a surreptitious glance. "Elijah is being a gentleman and a Good Samaritan."

At that the hybrid laughed, his dimples making an appearance. "Of course, Elijah the veritable saint who helps shelter newly resurrected, former witches. I had forgotten that was on his resume."

"Are you jealous of him or something? I saw the way that woman back there looked at him, and whoever this Hayley person is…she seems to favor Elijah as well. Does it bother you that people in general might like him more than you?"

"Careful," Klaus warned, his once amiable mood turning sour. "You are my brother's guest and mine by extension, but I might forget that and remember you at one point tried to kill me, and entrapped me in a house for three days with my dead brother's burned remains."

The two supernaturals squared off, neither backing down nor looking away.

Bonnie's lips slowly stretched until she was smiling from ear to ear. She chortled. "That sounds like a real bitchy thing to do though I'm sure you deserved it."

Klaus' head tilted curiously to the side. For a second there Bonnie seemed to not remember what she had done.

"Do you want to dance or something?" she asked suddenly.

The hybrid's eyebrows inched their way to his hairline. Bonnie had never made it any secret he bothered her, that she hated him, blamed him for things that weren't directly his fault and she wanted to set that aside and dance? Cut a rug? Do a jig?

"Are you asking me to dance or wondering if that's my purpose in conversing with you?" he asked for clarification.

Bonnie shrugged. "Take your pick. I want to have fun and standing here while some guy breaths down my neck about things that aren't any of his business is not my idea of a good time. Dance or not? Either way I'm going downstairs."

She moved to leave but Klaus grabbed her arm—gently. "It would be…"

"My honor," Elijah cut in. "Sorry I kept you waiting for so long. You're probably famished. Let's get some food into you and then we can do whatever you want."

"That sounds promising," Bonnie said.

"Then let's go."

Klaus detained them, speaking only to Bonnie. "Save me a dance?"

"No," she shot him down and disappeared with Elijah.

* * *

One of many things Damon loved about New Orleans…it didn't take long to find someone who knew where to find Klaus. Elijah had turned out to be a dead end so Damon was now putting his money on Klaus possibly knowing where Bonnie was. He seemed to have a knack for knowing sensitive information making him come off as omniscient when really he just knew how to employ and dispatch spies.

He parked his car outside of a riverfront property. The smooth, belting harmony of jazz instruments bombarded his ears and he hadn't stepped inside yet.

Damon strolled to the entrance where he was prevented from going any farther by a meathead bouncer that reeked of werewolf.

"Tonight is invite only. Show me your invitation."

A dark eyebrow rose and Damon smirked. "You need my invitation? Here it is right here," Damon flashed his middle finger and smashed his fist right into the bouncer's nose rendering the man unconscious.

The vampire, feeling generous, caught the bouncer before he landed like a pile of bricks on the concrete sidewalk. Damon laid him on the ground, pushing his body behind some potted plants, tugged down his leather jacket and sauntered inside….

….After being treated to a real New Orleans style feast Bonnie wanted to burn off some calories. Tugging relentlessly on Elijah's sleeve she finally managed to coax the Original to the dance floor where at first they awkwardly swayed from side-to-side in a minor two-step.

"Loosen up," Bonnie encouraged. "Prove to me you aren't a robot."

Up for the challenge, Elijah lowered his hands to her waist and pulled Bonnie closer. He spun her around, her back now to him. Unless it was the waltz, Elijah reframed from dancing in public. Grinding crotches and hind parts—he found distasteful, but sometimes he made exceptions. Holding a female close, inhaling her perfume, moving his body in syncopation with hers, undulating like a wave. He had no problems moving in such a fashion and did so with Bonnie.

Placing her hands on top of Elijah's, Bonnie wound her body, craned her neck, and got caught up on the expression on his face. Smoldering. Bonnie flushed. She had to look away.

Bonnie closed her eyes absorbing the music, dissecting the lyrics.

She was finally catching on to the hook when a sudden influx of energy crashed through her making every last one of her muscles lock into place. In her ears was a silent noise that grew louder and stronger and she knew with absolute _certainty _that he, her herald was here. She choked on a gasp.

Elijah stopped moving behind her. "Bonnie?"

Bonnie didn't hear him. She pulled away from the Original, spun around, and balanced on her toes to try to scan the crowd. When she couldn't see him, she pushed through the dancing audience, found an empty chair, and climbed on top of it.

Damon craned his neck to and fro trying to locate the woman who threw everything away just to take a plunge back to earth with him. His eyes went right to left, left to right, up down, and then stopped and zoomed in on the person standing on top of a table or chair.

For a full minute they stood completely immobile. Didn't so much as blink. The noise of the club bled away, and it was just the two of them separated by tables, chairs, and people.

Bonnie remembered nothing but snippets of information fed to her intravenously through the touch of a supernatural, but upon seeing Damon she knew unequivocally that that man was important to her, dear to her, her best friend, and so much more that she couldn't dress it up with words.

Damon took one step forward as Bonnie jumped off the chair and cleaved a path straight for him. Relief and anxiety made them equally desperate to reach the other before some unseen force decided to rip them away again.

Elijah could only watch as Bonnie plowed through the crowd like a bowling ball, didn't even slow down to a dignified walk the closer she drew to the younger vampire. She launched herself at Damon trusting he'd catch her which he did, holding her tightly, sweeping her clean off her feet.

Damon buried his face in Bonnie's hair drinking in her scent, clutching her, fingers burrowing into her back.

Her arms tightened around his neck in response. The dam broke and she started crying because she didn't think she'd see him again let alone remember him.

Heat crawled down Elijah's back at the display. He couldn't stomach to watch this but then had to question why. He and Bonnie weren't friends. Had only spent a limited time together…but they had been in the midst of having a moment. The Original sucked on his teeth.

Part of Damon was aware he and Bonnie were probably causing a scene but he didn't care. The pressure that found its home between his shoulder blades and the center of his chest was gone now. She was okay, alive, and that was the most important thing.

Slowly he lowered Bonnie to her feet but he didn't exactly establish any breathing room between them. He tilted her chin up and smirked at her teary eyes.

"Hey," Damon said simply.

Bonnie laughed framing his face with her hands. "Hi. What took you so long?"

"I'm sorry. Traffic was horrible," he ran his knuckles down the slope of her cheek and noticed she had a cut below her hairline. His eye narrowed around the corner. "What happened here?"

"I guess when I fell I bumped my head."

"This isn't healing."

"I feel fine, Damon."

"You remember my name?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I?"

Because she shouldn't remember anything according to the rules that governed The Arc, the realm they had called home three days ago. Damon's trepidation about Bonnie's possible memory loss evaporated.

"Well," Bonnie clarified. "I had forgotten your name for a little while but seeing you...it came back."

Damon frowned slightly. Sliding his hands across her back, Damon kissed Bonnie's forehead, her cheek, the tip of her nose while she giggled.

"Quit it," she admonished playfully.

Damon snorted and wanted to say not on his life but he caught sight of Elijah. The smile dropped from his face. He stepped back from Bonnie who stared up at him quizzically.

"Stay here," Damon ordered and made his way over to the Original.

Elijah sucked in a breath and stood tall and proud in his shoes. He had done nothing wrong but from the snarl on Damon's face one would think he had kidnapped and held Bonnie against her will.

"Damon," Elijah stretched out a hand when the vampire was near enough but then his gesture went ignored.

Damon zoomed over to Elijah, caught him around the throat and slammed the Original's back on a table without breaking it. Several women screamed, and people hopped out of the way.

Anger burned from both men's eyes.

"Damon!" Bonnie shouted. "Let him go."

"What the hell is your problem?" Elijah snapped through gritted teeth.

"My problem is I called and you didn't answer your phone and now I see why. You had Bonnie all this time and didn't try to get in contact with _anyone_ from Mystic Falls! Did you think you could keep her and get away with it?"

"As usual you're reading the situation all wrong, Damon," Elijah tried to thrust the imprudent vampire away to find…he couldn't budge Damon. "I've done nothing but look out for her."

"Give me one good reason not to rip you apart."

"Considering you don't have a white oak stake handy, and you're outnumbered I can think of a few."

Damon glanced around and saw vampires and werewolves preparing to come to Elijah's aid. Guys in suits cracked their knuckles. Girls in fancy dresses sharpened their claws.

"You're not strong enough to take us all on, Damon."

Holding the Original down with his left hand, Damon lifted his right and not a second later it erupted into sapphire flames. "You were saying, Pretty Boy Floyd?"

To be continued…

**A/N: That Damon, full of surprises ain't he? Let me know what you guys think because I certainly do enjoy hearing what stood out to you, what you liked, what you didn't understand so forth and so on. Thanks for reading! **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: M'kay would seem last chapter may have caused a conundrum. Whoops, definitely wasn't intentional. Nevertheless, thank you, loves for the reviews! Wowzers! I know many are worried this might cease being a Bonlijah and will flip to Bamon, or want this to be Bamon, all I can say is…pairings at this point is low on my list of priorities. I just hope we can all keep open minds. This chapter was a pain to write and I still can't even say I'm happy with it, but here is the latest, dolls. Enjoy!**

***Special note* I've changed the name of the place where Bonnie and Damon where. It's no longer going to be referred to as The Arc, but Hedera which is Latin for The Ivy, and I'll explain the significance of ivy later.**

Disclaimer: These characters are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW. All OC's belong to me. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**Hedera—Present Day**

Uther didn't have time to sleep. He hadn't slept since his mistress and master disappeared, and his agitation only mounted. The purebred had been grounded to the kennels at night. Banished like an uncouth mutt with zero home training that didn't lick his paws clean after supper. His punishment was hammered down because he may have started a few fights, but he needed to work off the steam some kind of way.

For now he feigned disinterest by yawning and curling his big body in a corner of the annex. But he was ever watchful, diligent in locking every tiny detail into memory.

Erudite, a humanoid formation of liquid mercury was reporting the goings on in other realms. Uther listened for any news about his mistress, but she just rambled on and on about graphite production and new customs he could care less about.

"…their way of thinking is hindered based on their perception…" she was saying. "Their perception being they are entitled to something. Having numbers gleams nothing if one's perception is delusional. One day soon the Cycentaurians will learn that no army can survive without a general, and give up their siege."

"That is our hope as well," Kirisi mumbled and others followed suit.

Uther huffed. Cycentaruians were inbred swine in his good opinion. Half Cyclops, half centaur they were a nuisance in the overall galaxy. If they were to suddenly perish in a mysterious fire he wouldn't bat an eye.

The purebred perked up some when he noticed Titus pull the hood of his mantle over his head and slip from the annex.

Discreetly, Uther rose to all four legs. Stretched his spine, shook the kinks from his muscles, and trotted out of the room. He, too disappeared free and clear, but checked over his shoulder to make sure no one followed him. Not even a full second later he dematerialized in a helix of ivory vapor.

He caught Titus' scent and caught up with him in the slipstream. Uther had no idea where the man was headed, but he speculated Titus was traversing to a discreet location. When the trail went cold, Uther jumped out of the slipstream and instinctively lowered his body to the ground.

They were far from the municipality. They were in the dry lands where everything from the ground, the sky, the rocks, even the bugs that scuttled along unified into one color: rust.

Uther sneezed. The air was too dense with dust particles, but he snarled and bore it because Titus was up to something. If he was going to get any answers as to what was being done to bring Bonnie and Damon home, the fair-haired man was Uther's best shot.

A flash of rippling cloth appeared in Uther's left peripheral and he followed. Carefully he adjusted to the sloping terrain that had unseen pitfalls, jagged rocks with edges sharper than a blade. This land was plagued with shadows that plummeted into caves that were millions of years old.

A sandstorm was some kilometers away and headed straight for them. The increase in wind velocity made networking the dry land perilous, but Uther kept tracking.

Up ahead the purebred heard a gaggle of rocks avalanching. Something must have just landed there, and not a second after looking up did Uther spot Titus striding to a cloaked figure.

There was no easy way for Uther to climb without being seen. If he were to transfigure into a bird of prey it would leave him with little energy to make it home before that sandstorm hit. So he had no choice but to wait it out and corner Titus. Though he couldn't communicate with words, Uther and those like him had ways of making their concerns and grievances known. It was called biting.

With the howling wind and the fact Titus and the cloaked figure were whispering, Uther couldn't hear a doggone thing, which only served to piss him off.

The purebred took a risk by inhaling the air knowing the feedback would be hell on his olfactory senses. With no other recourse available, he sucked it up. If he could get a lock on the scent of the cloaked person that might be able to pinpoint which realm the being hailed from.

_Sniff_, he inhaled.

The scent was organic based—that much Uther could discern. But so was everything else around this damn place. Wintry like an exotic flower, a fragrance Kirisi preferred. Where had she said she got it from when he would lounge in her quarters while Bonnie visited? It had been a gift? Uther sneezed again.

Uther fixed his amethyst eyes on the pair. The cloaked person made wild hand gestures while Titus appeared to be tempering the subject. He had always been soft-hearted that one, Uther snorted.

The wind shifted and actually ended up being a blessing. Uther could now hear what they were saying.

"There is no danger involved in doing this," Titus reasoned. "You aren't breaking any established protocol or laws. If I report back to Gannicus saying you were unhelpful in recovering simple information…"

"Gannicus?" the person squeaked. "You make mention of Gannicus _now_? You want this Dominion found that badly you would threaten me with a reprimand from a world breaker?"

"Peace, friend that's not what I meant. Simply, I'm asking this favor of you on Gannicus' behest. _This _particular Dominion is important for reasons I cannot in good faith disclose. Just know with your assistance you could possibly be…preventing a civil war."

"Civil war? Ha!" the figured guffawed. "The Prime Creator would end us all before that would ever happen."

"I can't deny the truth of those words. Please, Delphine, ask this of your master for me."

Uther watched with narrowed eyes. Almost wanted to place the cloaked person's neck in his mouth as an added incentive to agree to Titus' request.

A deep, heavy sigh rushed out of the unknown being. "Fine. I will return in no less than four and twenty hours with a reply. Meet me here."

"Thank you."

The unidentified person said nothing before shooting from the ground at a rapid speed.

Uther figured there was no reason left for him to hide. He made himself visible to Titus who had turned to make the journey back to the citadel. He only broke stride for a second once seeing the dog prior to working his way down the steep mountain.

The man didn't spare the purebred any words. He merely scratched Uther behind the ears knowing it would tick the animal off. One thing purebreds despised were being treated like house pets, show dogs. They loved affection once it's been earned and from their favorite beings. No one else needed to touch them. For any reason. Period.

"We're getting closer," Titus informed. "Let's go home before the higher ups notice we're gone."

* * *

**New Orleans**

Vibrations began like a drumstick hitting a symbol. It was an instinctive feeling like when a group of wolves or a pride of lionesses spotted dinner, and sent silent cues to one another to ready themselves for a perfectly timed ambush. Bonnie didn't exactly fold herself into a crouch nor did she snarl. It was an inward change at an outward threat that caused the Dominion to become hyperaware of everything around her.

Bonnie wasn't so much worried about what was happening between Elijah and Damon. No, her attention was sharp and focused on the people who were slowly and subtly inching their way closer to the two vampires.

Tension licked at her spine and condensed the air every time she inhaled. Bonnie smelled nothing but serotonin, adrenaline, and other hormones released when danger and excitement were on the near horizon. It was a dance unfolding, an insidious dance in which there could only be one champion, one victor.

Bonnie cricked her neck, extended and balled her hands into fists that were aching to pound mercilessly into something. In her head she calculated the distance between herself, her herald, and benefactor. Fifteen—twenty feet tops separated them. But a lot could go down in that space. Football was a game of inches, fighting was a game of viciousness.

She had been advised to make herself small. She couldn't exactly do that at the moment because things could escalate when there was no need for it to.

Bonnie took a step and that step prompted three heavy-set gentlemen in custom-made suits to block her way. She tossed them an annoyed look, and right before their very eyes slipped into the in-between, the unknown to these individuals.

A resounding gasp caught her ear but everything else had faded into shades of white and gray. Bonnie could see everything perfectly as if she was staring at an X-ray, but the beautiful and stealthy thing was…no one could see _her_.

The two combatants she had her eyes on where still engaged in their own battle of superiority. Yes, her herald drew the wrong conclusion and acted imprudently, but he was an _Argeiphontes _which just sprang to Bonnie's mind. Memories of her past were now trickling in like a leaky faucet. One loaded drop at a time. Damon was…a giant slayer and to him Elijah was nothing but a giant that needed to be put down.

Someone must have alerted them both or the entire club—really, what she had done. Heads began to crane, and eyes darted from one part of the establishment to the next in a futile attempt to locate her.

Bonnie was closer now, maneuvering around bodies as if they were mannequins. She caught sight of Klaus flying down the staircase roaring at the top of his lungs.

The Dominion could hear what he was saying but the sound was muffled.

"What the hell is this?" Klaus stomped down to the main level of the club. He blinked rapidly for a moment once he spotted Damon Salvatore. "What the bloody hell are you doing alive and trying to start a war in my club?"

Damon never wavered in glowering at Elijah as he addressed the hybrid. "Nice to see you, too, Dimples."

The hybrid snorted and wondered why Elijah wasn't moving his ass. Then he saw it. Damon's hand was on fire, and they weren't your typical red-orange flames, either. Hmm. Interesting.

The heat coming from those sapphire flames was cool, frigid like nitrogen oxide. Elijah kept his gaze firmly planted on Damon and…his eyes were changing color. It's usual turquoise slowly being overtaken with flecks of iridescent green. Was he channeling Bonnie or was she siphoning off her power to him?

Like evolution it took centuries for gifts to cultivate and have any sense of vitality. The most Elijah had seen any vampire do was mind control an animal turning it into its version of a familiar.

Damon, in this moment, had an evolutionary edge. Elijah didn't give a shit about that. He _was _an Original.

Bonnie now stood behind her herald. The flames engulfing Damon's hand were silver to her. She grabbed the hem of his leather jacket and pulled him away while simultaneously appearing back into the physical world, stunning the crowd.

All these actions had taken place in seconds but had felt like an eternity.

"The fuck?" Damon looked around trying to find the one who tugged him backwards. Bonnie, of course, it just had to be her since she didn't like him having too much fun.

Bonnie implanted herself between Damon and Elijah who fluidly rose from the table. She looked at one then the other, her hand coming up to rest on Damon's chest to hold him back. She understood he was angry because it appeared Elijah was keeping the knowledge of her being alive a secret from whoever in this world cared about her existence. Five years together and Damon was still exhibiting hothead tendencies.

Turning to discipline her herald before he got them both attacked, she glared, "Don't start something I'm going to have to finish."

"I had everything under control," Damon scowled.

"Did you now?" she asked rhetorically and waited for him to extinguish his flaming hand.

Damon powered down despite not wanting to. There were too many people present who would love to do nothing more than mount his head on a spike. He could sense it, and ordinarily that would have made him smile. However, if he crossed that line, went over the edge, Bonnie would follow and she couldn't.

Bonnie once again looked at Elijah.

Yet up above the Werewolf Queen had her keen vision locked on the threesome below.

They were the star attraction and being put on display was the last thing Bonnie wanted. She didn't want to make it known what she was capable of when really she had done nothing but seemingly vanished into thin air. Still it was enough to garner unwanted attention. And enemies.

"Elijah," Bonnie whispered from her spot.

When he looked her way, his fangs were bared and the need for retaliation sung from the wriggling red and black veins under his brown on black eyes.

Elijah was in no mood to hear anything she had to say.

The times he had to suppress his own urge to physically strike back at something that struck at him—Elijah wasn't going to take the high road this time. His reputation was on the line, and though he might be considered the more lenient one between him and Klaus, he could be just as heartless and ruthless as his younger brother. Still, he had to play this smart.

Elijah adopted a casual stance—face returning to normal, and struck out a hand toward Damon who naturally gave it the stink eye. "Bygones?"

"Whatever," Damon didn't reach out to shake Elijah's hand until Bonnie stepped on his toes with the pointy end of her pumps.

Reluctantly, Damon stretched out his hand. But then a meaty fist slammed into his jaw and he found himself sailing across the club like a paper plane.

He groaned when his back made contact with brick and hissed when something…well it definitely wasn't a knife or a stake, but a silver-plated Mont Blanc pen if he were guessing correctly was stabbed into his jugular.

Elijah held Damon pinned to the wall with his hand wrapped around the younger vampire's neck. Lions were strong but even they could get maimed.

"Is your heart still malleable, Damon? Should I take a look?"

"No, you shouldn't."

Bonnie gawked, wide-eyed and open mouth. Just as she took a step to intervene, the way was barred by someone three times her size. She didn't care. Merely twisted the man's arm awkwardly, brought him down low enough for her to ram her knee into his humerus—splintering the bone that it punctured straight through his skin.

He roared to high heaven. Bonnie tossed him aside like garbage.

Her eyes became alight and she could feel her wings—the ones with the daggers wanting to rupture from their secret hiding place. Bonnie scanned those around her. They shifted uneasily questioning if it would be smart to gang up on her or leave her be.

"I've done nothing but shown her kindness," Elijah went on seemingly ignoring the malady that was in progress, "and protected her while you did what? I've had to teach you about showing respect in the past, and it surprises me not that you failed to retain what you learned. How many times do you want to be schooled?"

Damon croaked but his eyes trailed over to Bonnie who was being circled.

Elijah may have appeared ignorant of what was happening behind him but he was very much aware of it. "Stand down," he ordered lowly.

Those who had been ready to fight backed off as soon as Elijah issued the command.

"Let her pass!" the Original bellowed next and then brutally ripped the pen out of Damon's neck and flicked it aside.

The men and women blocking Bonnie's way stepped aside, and she didn't waste a moment flying over to Damon. He wobbled but stood to his full height, the wound on his neck already healing.

Slowly the Original closed his eyes and reopened them reflecting back not a single emotion. A practiced form of self-preservation so no one could ever read him, know what truly filtered through his mind, what pricked at his heart.

Elijah spoke once Bonnie was near, "I think it would be best if the two of you left. Right. Now."

That dismissal pinched a nerve leading Bonnie to cock her head to the side, carefully examining the Elijah who was materializing before her.

His spine was far too straight, lips pinched in an unforgiving line, eyes cold and for all intents and purposes—dead. His aura screamed "touch me and I take your head".

She searched Elijah's face as she ate the distance between them entering his invisible barrier. "I understand why you're upset…"

"I don't need an explanation or a watered down excuse, Bonnie," Elijah interrupted. "I just need you and this sonofabitch to get the hell out of my family's club."

Callous, his words had been delivered with the subtlety of a jackhammer.

Inwardly, Bonnie recoiled. She knew her sudden appearance in Elijah's life had been an inconvenience, but she didn't think he would subvert to treating her like this. Before Damon showed up, they had been enjoying each other's company, were getting along and having fun. Now that his ego was bruised he wanted to be the opposite of a gentleman?

Elijah strode away.

So this was how they would part ways? Bonnie knew she shouldn't care and should be happy she could now leave the unfamiliar and work her way towards what was. But…she didn't want to leave with the taste of bad blood lingering on her tongue.

Damon gripped Bonnie by the hand. "Let's go."

She didn't have the chance to say anything else as Damon zoomed them out of the club.

The night air filled her lungs and hit her skin. She and Damon were silent as they briskly walked toward his parked vehicle where he opened the door for her, and was seated behind the wheel within a nanosecond.

The weight of events slowly crashed down on Bonnie's shoulders. Her back was thrust into the seat when Damon hit the gas, flying through the quarter as if they were on a race track.

Her thoughts were on a merry-go-round but she looked at Damon who was concentrating on the road.

"He hates me."

Damon breathed harshly. "He doesn't hate you. It's me he doesn't like. Don't beat yourself up about it."

Easier said than done. "You didn't have to take things that far, Damon," Bonnie reprimanded.

"No, I supposed I didn't. My mind sometimes goes from zero to sixty, you know that about me. I'm not going to apologize for thinking his altruism hadn't been entirely pure. He's an Original and not to be trusted."

"And you call me the judgmental one."

Damon hunched a shoulder.

Bonnie shifted on the seat, "Where have you been all this time?"

"Utah."

"How did you find me?" was her next question.

"Satellite images. I compelled someone at a weather station to bring up images around the date and time I entered Earth's atmosphere. Luckily we were captured on film which turned out to be a big break in helping me narrow down where to start looking for you. Instinct told me to check New Orleans first," Damon took his eyes off of traffic and directed his gaze to Bonnie. "You've been in Elijah's care all this time?"

She nodded. "He found me stumbling along a road, bleeding and soaked because it had been raining. He was very…he didn't try to hurt me. In fact between the pair of us I was the more violent one."

Damon chuckled darkly. "How so?"

"I…of course didn't remember who he was, but Elijah filled in some missing pieces. Long story short, my less friendly side reared its head and I blew up his house," she mumbled quietly.

Damon was silent for a moment before howling in laughter.

Bonnie pinched her lips. "It's not that funny."

"And people believe my buttons are easy to push," the vampire switched lanes after merging on the highway.

"That's not all," Bonnie purged. "I killed a sceadugenga."

"A what?" Damon pulled one of his infamous faces.

"It's a shape shifting undead creature. It wanted to eat me so I killed it. And…I hurt Elijah's friend. Some woman named Hayley."

Damon mulled over everything Bonnie shared with him. "My, you certainly have had a busy three days."

"That's how long we've been separated?"

"Bonnie, what exactly do you or don't you remember?" Damon changed the subject because though she knew who he was, a niggling feeling in the back of his head wouldn't give it a rest.

Bonnie _shouldn't _remember him or anything about her life. But she did. How? That needed to be investigated.

She stared at her fingers, "I…um…I didn't remember your name…but I _knew _you and I knew we had been separated. Bits and pieces of our time are still missing, but I can recall a vast chunk of it."

"What about your life before we…blipped out of this existence?"

Nothing but a blank. Bonnie could recall nothing of her childhood, adolescence, young adulthood before she and Damon disappeared in that blinding pale blue light.

Sadly she nibbled on her lip. Damon could see the action out of his peripheral.

"All your memories about your life here are gone?" he concluded.

"Yeah."

Breathing deeply, a muscle in the vampire's jaw flexed. "Well, maybe they'll come back once we make it home."

"Home…you mean back to Hedera?"

The hope in Bonnie's voice hadn't been hard to miss. "No. Virginia."

The name drew a blank in Bonnie. However, apprehension churned and she gripped the sides of the seat. A phantom sensation of pain coursed through her.

"I can't…" she stammered, "I can't go there."

"Why not?"

"I can't go."

Damon opened his mouth to speak again but picked up the sound of Bonnie's frantically beating heart. He stared at her and she appeared to be lost inside her own head, face contorted into fright.

"Bonnie, look at me."

Her eyes were fused forward. Virginia…pain…Virginia…no she didn't want to be anywhere near that place, wherever that place was. Bad things happened and she somehow ended up taking the brunt of it. Don't ask her how she knew that since she couldn't remember jack shit, but she _knew _if she stepped foot back in that place the cycle may start all over again. She had achieved so much and Bonnie didn't want to lose what she had gained.

Bonnie didn't jump when Damon's hand landed on top of hers. He pried her hand away from the seat and sank his fingers between hers. The fear and terror that were beginning to rise within her languidly receded back into its crevices.

"Listen to me, Bonnie…"—his voice was an echo in her ears—"you and I are in this together. Iron sharpens iron and we are each other's iron. Remember that. I'm not going to let anything or anyone hurt you."

Numbly, she repeated their own special motto that got her through plenty of bad days where everything wasn't roses and champagne.

Dominion and Herald stared unblinkingly at one another, _iron sharpens iron_.

She relaxed. "Okay. We can go…just not right now. There's something I have to make right first."

"If this is about Elijah and his hurt feelings, screw him."

"Damon," Bonnie gave him a sidelong glance. "I hurt his friend and I think I know how to undo whatever it was I did. Plus…I need to thank him for looking after me. Please, help me do this before I'm no longer asking you to wait before I'm _ordering_ you to wait."

He made a rude noise in the back of his throat. "I hate it when you do that."

"I know. Are we waiting?"

"Fine, but _only_ for twenty-four hours," he muttered sternly.

Bonnie smiled. "Thank you, now turn this car around."

* * *

**Huntington Beach, CA**

"Why is it so hard to believe after all the unbelievable shit you've seen and gone through yourself that your brother is alive?"

Stefan ignored Enzo's question as he slugged drinks back and forth to customers loitering at the bar and the waitressing staff. He was thankful the bar had been slammed shortly after Enzo's bullshit revelation about Damon being alive; relieving him of the arduous task of dissecting that statement to itty bitty pieces.

There was no fathomable way Damon was alive. Why? Because the number one miracle worker who made the impossible, possible was dead right alongside his brother. Without Bonnie there was no loophole, or shortcut, or pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Why Enzo was placing his bet on a pipedream Stefan didn't know and his anger over the whole thing was mounting. He just wanted to be left the hell alone and live in ignorant bliss. After struggling with blood addiction, being used as a puppet, having two of the most important people in his life betray him, stuffed in a safe was he _really _asking for too much?

Enzo was messing up his fantasy.

The dark-haired Brit studied Stefan closely noticing that tick in his jaw never once relaxed since the words "Your brother is alive" came floating out of his mouth. Enzo expected disbelief—sure because he had had some difficulty believing that rumor as well, but this blind denial on Stefan's end…was beginning to irritate him.

The indignant shouts of customers waiting to be served became background noise as Enzo dug in his pocket for his cell phone.

Stefan had just finished making several elaborate drinks. The second he turned to march to the register he came face-to-face with an image he never expected to see anytime soon.

That had to be a photoshopped image of Damon seemingly standing in the middle of a dorm room from what Stefan could tell. Cell phone photos were almost unreliable unless you were in point blank range of an object to get a clear, high quality picture. And this was a clear, high quality picture.

Damon stood stoic, talking with his hands like always, dressed in a black ensemble. It was his brother but it didn't _look _like his brother.

Stefan snatched the phone out of Enzo's hands and stared. "When was this taken?"

"Yesterday. Matt took that image and sent it to Caroline who forwarded it me. He's alive, Stefan."

The world disappeared from under Stefan's feet. He staggered over to the shelves of alcohol to lean his weight against it. Missed by a total mile and ended up on the floor.

"Wipeout," one of the customers laughed.

Enzo sniggered impolitely and hefted Stefan to his feet. "Still don't believe me?"

Stefan shook the befuddlement from his head or at least tried to. He could barely hear anything feeling as if his ears, mouth, nostrils, and throat had been stuffed with cotton. His hands shook uncontrollably and he shut his eyes closed to get a hold of himself.

"H-he's i-in…V-irginia?" the younger Salvatore stuttered horribly.

Enzo folded his arms across his chest. "He was." Stefan snapped his head up and glared. "He wasn't the only one to return from the great beyond. Apparently Bonnie is back but lost somewhere."

"Bonnie is back, too!" Stefan practically yelled and his outburst caused the noise level in the bar to dim for a moment. "How?"

Enzo shrugged. "I'm not sure."

"What the hell are you two doing?" Lou's disembodied bark startled the two vampires. "You've got customers waiting. Get back to work! I'm not paying you to socialize."

Neither one moved a muscle.

"Damon went to go look for her?" Stefan asked though he already had his answer.

"According to one pissed off Alaric and Jeremy. They had gone with him to get satellite images because Damon," Enzo paused to snort, "fell from the heavens and crashed landed in Utah. He ditched them after he had the images in hand. Alaric caught a glimpse…Bonnie may be somewhere in Louisiana or Texas. Damon was being unerringly stingy in coughing up details. So…you want to continue to imitate scenes from _Cocktails _or do you want to meet your brother half way?"

Was that a serious question? Stefan compressed his lips together in a thin line. He untied his apron. "Let me put in my two-minute notice that I'm quitting."

"Atta boy."

* * *

**New Orleans**

Smoke filled his lungs but then pushed through his nostrils and mouth. Elijah thought back to the last day he enjoyed a cigar. May have been back in the late eighteen hundreds. It did nothing for him, but he needed this simple task of breathing something toxic into his dead lungs and pushing it back out to stabilize his mood.

Now that Damon and Bonnie, no doubt, were making their way back to Virginia he could get on with his life. At the end of the day Bonnie didn't belong here. No matter how much she intrigued him, and he _was _intrigued, she didn't exactly fit into his world. Then again, from what Elijah had seen, Bonnie didn't fit into anyone's world but her own, and even that couldn't contain her.

He had peered into her thoughts, seen her become her true self before slipping on the mask of mortality…danced with her, those were nothing but fleeting moments.

That's what his mind said. The rest of him was another matter entirely.

The joy of being a vampire was you were better at most everything than everyone else. The downside of being a vampire—heightened emotions. It never took a vampire long to become addicted, obsessed, or enamored about something or someone leading to a life of co-dependency. And Elijah had always been a master at his deeper emotions making sure they never got the best of him.

Elijah had his wants and desires and they typically clashed with another's agenda. Daydreaming about a life he couldn't have without crossing through a lot of red tape would be a waste of his time.

But he still wanted it.

Elijah stood on a pier across the street from the club overlooking Lake Pontchartrain.

The wind blew and that haunting aroma of earth, sandalwood…_Bonnie_ filled Elijah's lungs.

When Elijah turned around she stood in front him at the other end of the pier.

A dark eyebrow lifted and for the umpteenth time Elijah found himself speechless. Not only had his patience been tested, but his strength, territory, and now his authority. He was not above playing dirty when needed, hitting below the belt but deep down he hated having to resort to such tactics.

Submissiveness got some men off but it took another man entirely to get off on defiance…

* * *

….Queen Keres sighed dejectedly and tapped three clawed fingers along her temple. She turned elegantly in her Prussian blue snakeskin gown with real, live pythons making up the train. But she stopped suddenly and refaced the person—correction her quivering, emaciated shithead of a subject.

She admired the scepter in her hand, the twinkle of the jewels, the engravings and markings which spoke of bravery and other poetic bullshit that made her eyes rotate in her head. Gripping it, she bashed it across the man's face.

Those watching gave no outward reaction whereas the one attacked, palmed his stinging cheek. Drawing back a hand it was covered in blood.

"Discipline is the medicine of disobedience," Queen Keres spoke casually, "while punishment is its executioner. You failed."

"Majesty, please…" he whimpered pitifully.

She continued as if she hadn't heard him. "You are here which means, my love, and stay with me because this is important…you fucking died! What did you in?"

"I…"

Queen Keres held up two fingers, "There are only two things which can kill you. A silver consecrated stake or dagger blessed by Tsarian monks and sunlight. But since you were equipped with a spelled charm to resist the poisonous radiation of the sun…"

* * *

"What are you doing back here?" Elijah asked.

"Not to fight."

"What do you want?"

"To talk."

"Then talk…you have the floor."

Bonnie began to saunter down the pier toward him. The night hugged her curves just like that damn dress. Elijah sank a closed fist in his pocket. This evening was beginning to feel like a Martin Scorsese film…didn't seem to want to end.

Stopping just a half a foot away from Elijah, Bonnie inhaled and slowly released her breath.

"Things got out of hand tonight and I didn't want to leave with bad blood between us. If I had crossed anyone else's path that night there's no telling what could have happened to me. I appreciate everything you've done and I _thank you, _Elijah. I can't say that enough." Pause. "I can help your friend…Hayley."

The Original blinked at that.

"You want to help Hayley?" Elijah questioned.

Bonnie nodded. "What happened to her is my fault. I destroyed your home, I hurt your friend. I'm so sorry, and I'm sorry for my herald's impertinence."

Elijah flicked his gaze to Damon who was leaning against his car, arms folded defensively across his chest. "You shouldn't apologize for him. He's a man and he can do it himself. But…if I were in his position, I'd probably react the same way."

"Regardless, things shouldn't have escalated the way they did. So…can you take me to Hayley?"

Elijah infinitesimally nodded his head, and threw the rest of his cigar into the lake.

* * *

"She called herself a Dominion," he blurted knowing it was against the law to speak without permission. But seeing as how his fate was already sealed, he decided to quietly say, 'fuck it'.

Queen Keres blinked and frowned. "A Dominion?"

"Yes, my Queen."

"A Dominion," Keres smiled devilishly. "Delightful how things can seemingly fall into your lap without killing your soul trying to work for it. Though I have no soul to speak of," she glided back to her dais and sat down in her throne chair. "Tell me everything that happened, but first did you mark the place as I instructed?"

Vigorously the changeling nodded his head. "Yes, your majesty."

"Well, at least you did something right. Continue with your tall tale."

If a Dominion was in the realm she and her people were trying to colonize…what exactly did it mean? Keres had heard tales of Dominions and warrior angels, but she had never seen one. They were extremely powerful, immortal—truly immortal as in they couldn't die because no weapon existed that could kill them. At least that was the mythos surrounding those creatures. But Keres had lived for thousands of centuries and knew if something had breath that meant it could die. Or at the very least be used for something else other than its intended purpose. You just had to locate its weakness and apply pressure.

* * *

The two of them began to head back down the pier. Elijah's mind rushed. Just what exactly was Bonnie going to do to reverse Hayley's condition, but most importantly why was he a little pleased she hadn't just skipped town at the first sign of freedom?

Chapter end.

**A/N: Okay so for the moment Bamon won't be heading back to Virginia, but know it's coming. I'm ready to tackle the mythology piece of this story, are you? Thanks for reading! Drop me a line. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Thank you to all the beautiful people who reviewed, added to your lists, and is still obsessed with this story. It really does mean the world to me. Enjoy the latest!**

Disclaimer: These characters (aside from my OC's) are the creative property of LJ Smith/CW. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**Mystic Falls**

Arms folded, fingers tapping a beat on her bicep, Caroline shifted her weight from one foot to the other as she looked between her former history teacher and her best friend's little brother.

She had arrived in a whirlwind with wild hair and not a shred of makeup since she hastily left Scotland to make it back stateside. She had dumped her luggage unceremoniously on Alaric's hardwood floor, and fired off questions that didn't provide any satisfactory answers.

"Why didn't you follow Damon after it became glaringly obvious he ditched the two of you?" Caroline switched her gaze from one to the other. "The man hasn't been alive or whatever for a week and you let him slip through your fingers? Unbelievable!"

Jeremy and Alaric exchanged glances. The younger man was too upset to speak. More to the matter he was too busy inwardly kicking himself for not predicting Damon's behavior. The vampire had a history of only allowing someone to lend assistance to a certain degree before he took over. The only person, besides Stefan, Damon ever saw a plan from its infancy inception to completion was with Bonnie. Jeremy should have _known _he would be ditched at some point, and should have been more vigilant to stop it from happening.

Over a year and a half ago he had been the one Bonnie depended on. Even if that dependency had been built on the back of unfortunate circumstances. He had been the only person Bonnie could communicate with. The only person she could—metaphorically speaking, lean on. And instead of doing what he could to bring her back, Jeremy had carried out her wishes to deceive her friends and dad into believing she was alive, traveling the world with her mom.

Damon had been the one to come up with a strategy, work out the logistics that eventually led to Bonnie's resurrection. It had been the vampire Bonnie liked the least who had given her hope, and not the young man she brought back because she loved him.

Back then, Jeremy could admit his preoccupation had more to do with being able to touch Bonnie. His eagerness in disclosing how he truly felt about her. Regardless, _he _should have been the one to do everything in his power to bring her back.

Now the woman he still loved was lost and once again it would be _Damon _who would save the day.

Jeremy wouldn't deny he was thankful that Bonnie at least had Damon. Grudgingly thankful. Thankful she didn't have to face the end alone. Too many times in the past Bonnie had suffered through tragedy, but had no one to bear her soul to. No one to dry her tears because while her life imploded there was always drama happening elsewhere.

Once he saw her again, got her back, Jeremy was determined _never _to let her go. To never have her doubt his sincerity in wanting to be her support.

"We did follow him," Alaric defended. "I was able to track his scent to a nearby gas station. But by then Damon had stolen some guy's car which was found an hour later off of Route 220. I saw enough of the satellite images before Damon pocketed them, and recalled Bonnie's coordinates along with the time she was captured on film, so to speak.

"I took what I had to Dr. Desai, an astrologer and physicist who plugged that info into some kind of formula. He narrowed down where Bonnie may have landed based on her trajectory."

"And it took you a day to get that information?" Caroline pressed.

Alaric pinched his lips together. "Believe it or not things don't happen as quickly in real life as they do on TV. Tracking down Dr. Desai took more leg work than I thought possible," he spread out a map of the southern United States.

Caroline approached and eyed the map noting six red dots highlighted between Texas and Louisiana. She sighed dejectedly. She had hoped for a narrower search.

As if reading her mind, Alaric asserted, "He got it as precise as he could get it so we have six possibilities. Two cities in eastern Texas and the rest in southwest Louisiana. Tyler and Elena are headed to Tyler, Texas go figure."

Caroline swallowed. A pang went through her at hearing Tyler and Elena would be traveling together. Sure, she may have moved on from Tyler, but some days she really missed what they had. Their relationship had been her longest to date. However, their love had been punctured to death by wedges. Wedges in the form of one Original hybrid.

She slapped her hands on her thighs. "Well I've racked up a shitload of frequent flyer miles so I can head to…Shreveport. Think Eric Northman is real and he'll be able to tell me if he came across Bonnie?"

Alaric snorted.

"What about Enzo and Stefan?" Jeremy questioned. "Matt said he'd try to reach out to a couple of guys from the football team who go to school in Texas to keep an eye out. I don't think that's going to pan out."

Caroline informed, "I called Enzo and let him know what happened. He said he was going to find Stefan and drag him back kicking and screaming if he had to."

Alaric inclined his head toward the blonde. "Before all this happened…did you learn anything useful in Scotland?"

"Mostly theories, myths and speculations. I was so focused on finding Bonnie I didn't even think to ask if there might be a way to get rid of the magic-less bubble over Mystic Falls."

"One problem at a time," the former teacher smiled crookedly. "Mystic Falls can wait. Finding Bonnie and Damon—can't. Let's get to work."

The threesome dispersed. Jeremy fell in step to Alaric as they left the older man's apartment.

"Hey," Jeremy began tentatively, "did Damon seem different to you?"

At first Alaric was going to retort 'no' but then he thought about seeing Damon physically growing larger in size, but there was something else about the vampire Alaric couldn't quite put his finger on. "I'm sure whatever he and Bonnie have been through has had significant changes on them both."

"I wonder where they've been."

"Maybe Bonnie will be the more forthcoming one once we find her," Alaric studied the young man walking beside him. He could see something was on Jeremy's mind, something he did and didn't want to talk about. "I'm sure things will fall back into place, Jer."

"Yeah, we'll see."

* * *

**Day Two, Year One**

_The water that lapped at the coastline, Bonnie could only speculate was responsible for the sands blue color, while the sand farther back from the roaring ocean was its typical beige hue. She had no idea if it were safe to swim or not—having never seen this kind of phenomenon before, and she certainly wasn't going to risk her toes or any other body part to find out._

_This was her second day here and the first had been…well it had been memorable filled with embarrassing and intrusive trappings. She never had to sit in front of an inquisitorial board before and she hoped to never have to do so again. _

_She couldn't figure out or really understand why she and…Damon by extension had been dumped here. Wherever here was, but Bonnie had never felt so homesick until now._

_Her eyes lifted toward the kaleidoscope sky. Was that a planet or a moon drifting lazily across her field of vision? Her heart quickened. It was about one third the size of what she'd expect Neptune to look like. This place was scary. A grandmaster art of science fiction and she didn't belong here._

_Someone was approaching. Her ears could pick up the sensitive sound of feet sinking into sand. Bonnie shifted a little and saw a tall, willowy woman with dark mahogany skin, long black hair that nearly came to her cinched waistline, and large onyx eyes. _

"_How are you today, Bonnie?"_

"_No better than I was yesterday," she answered plaintively. _

_The woman nodded but Bonnie really doubted she understood. She had been thoroughly examined from her gums to her cervix. Blood and tissue samples taken, quarantined, locked into a room where she was blasted with skin scorching heat and then doused with icy cold water and scrubbed within an inch of her life. _

_She could only imagine what they subjected Damon to._

_Bonnie's thoughts drifted back to sitting on that stone chair facing fourteen people: seven men and seven women who all appeared human but most definitely were not human. They sat on marble daises in an arc while she had been the lone subject of scrutiny. Each judiciary had been outfitted with a breastplate while uniquely designed gilded crowns sat on their heads. _

"_You are descendant from the homo sapiens Magnus species are you not?"_

"_Um, what?" Bonnie blinked in confusion. The only part of that she understood was homo sapien. "I don't kn—,"_

"_Have you replicated your DNA or comingled your DNA with another of your kind?" another Seniore had questioned. _

"_The lamia who traveled with you, have you had relations…"_

"_Look," Bonnie cut them off. "I have no idea what you're asking me or what exactly you want to know. All I do know is that maybe twenty-fours ago I was the anchor to the Other Side, a purgatory of sorts for supernatural beings. I was dying…or coming close to it and then…I was here. I was a witch before that but died using three different kinds of magic to bring someone back from the dead. My Grams…she said…she made sure I would have peace and so far this is a long fucking way from peace. Who are you people, why am I here, and where is that vampire I came here with?"_

_The assembly stared back at Bonnie in unnerving silence. _

"_We ask the questions, madam," one woman averred who reminded the former anchor of her Calculus teacher. A lady who should have retired thirty-five years ago because she looked like she was pushing a hundred._

_A door to Bonnie's right opened and two men dragged a bound and gagged Damon Salvatore into the privy chamber. They dropped him to his knees and unstrapped a muzzle like contraption off his face. _

_The minute he could freely move his mouth, Damon didn't waste a second ripping everyone his irate eyes landed on a new asshole. _

"_You motherfucking gotdamn bas…"_

"_Control him!" one of the Seniores ordered. _

_Damon had gotten to his feet but was hit with a dart and landed face first with a wince inducing thud on the marble floor. If he weren't immortal that blow to his head probably would have killed him, or at the very least crackled his skull. _

_Under much different circumstances Bonnie probably would have laughed. But considering Damon was the only person she knew in this strange place, this was no laughing matter. _

_Bonnie fought against her instinct to rush over and make sure he was okay. She certainly couldn't risk being taken out with a dart if she so much as coughed. She watched helplessly as a small pool of blood circled Damon's head. _

"_He's hurt," she whispered._

"_And I'm sure he'll survive. We cannot allow him to remain here."_

_Bonnie snapped her head back to the Seniores. "What?"_

"_Concessions were made for _you_ to be among us," a bald-headed man with russet skin informed. "You are…a descendant of the House of Aziza."_

_Bonnie had no earthly idea what this man was talking about. She knew her family history—partially. She was the however many great-granddaughter of Emily Bennett and her family lineage went all the way back to a supposed goddess. A jilted goddess who wasted her life trying to extract revenge and be reunited with a man who didn't want her. That's what Bonnie knew about the Bennett's. So what was this House of Aziza business?_

_She rose to her feet and the tension that already permeated the room thickened, intensified. "If he's not welcomed here…then neither am I. He," Bonnie pointed at Damon, "he was entrusted to watch after me."_

_The Seniores tossed speculative and suspicious glances at one another. _

_The bald-headed man spoke once more, "He is your praeco?"_

"_Ah…yeah?" Bonnie's response sounded too much like a question._

_Of course her proclamation wasn't bought and Bonnie had been caught in a lie. The smile the bald-headed Seniore gifted her with chilled Bonnie's bones. _

"_As tradition states praecos are put through rigorous tests to prove their worth. We will not expunge him. Not yet. If he has been sanctioned to protect you it is only fair he is allowed to do his job until he is found defunct. Take him away."_

"_Where are you taking him?" _

_Her question had never been answered, and thus Bonnie had been led away to her own chambers where she had been locked inside. She was released at the first sign of sunlight._

_Now she stood on this beach facing a woman whose name she didn't remember though they had been briefly introduced once her quarantine ended. _

"_My people," the woman began, "we're used to dealing in absolutes. They're very straightforward, but I would hope that one day you may come to think of this place as home."_

"_What is this place exactly? No one has told me anything no matter how many times I ask. Where's my…friend?"_

_The woman cleared the distance between them. "Your friend is safe."_

"_How safe are we talking?" Bonnie lifted her chin._

"_Safe in that he's being properly treated and fed. To answer your first question, this place is called Hedera."_

_Bonnie tried to absorb that. "This isn't Earth?"_

"_No, this is another realm of existence entirely located many light years away from whence you came."_

_The confused and scared young woman nodded, not feeling any more relaxed about her present situation. "Is there any way for me to go back home?"_

_That question was met with a wall of silence. _

_Bonnie sucked in a breath, "Am I…am I really dead?"_

_The woman offered Bonnie a genteel smile and stretched out a hand for her to take. "No, you're not dead. In fact, you've never been more alive, Bonnie. Let me show you."_

_Naturally this made Bonnie hesitate. She was not used to strangers being nice to her. She was used to some kind of subterfuge because most people she came into contact with only wanted to use her magic for exploitative reasons. They wanted something from her, Bonnie was sure of it. And there was no guarantee that Damon would help her because more than likely he would expect her to figure out some way to get them back home. _

_Mentally Bonnie hadn't allowed herself to go there. Go back to Mystic Falls before Traveler magic made it impossible for her to step foot in the place where she grew up. If she thought about never seeing her friends or Jeremy again, or eating patio side at The Grill during the spring or summer, the parties, actually enjoying the college experience, making love she would crumble and lose her shit. _

"_I promise, Bonnie, you're here for a purpose and that purpose is good. Nothing here will hurt you nor anyone. It is against the law for us to quarrel with one another."_

"_But I don't belong here and neither does Damon."_

"_Be that as it may, you are here. You were chosen for this."_

"_Chosen?" Bonnie questioned. "My grandmother said she made a sacrifice so that I could find peace. I don't think I was chosen for this so much as I'm here by someone putting in a good word for me."_

_The woman smiled, and winked as one iris became purple, "Grace, favor, good word all synonymous with being chosen, Bonnie. Please allow me to show you around your new home."_

_Stubbornly Bonnie didn't move. She stared at the woman's hand prior to glaring her right in the eyes. "What's your name again?"_

"_Kirisi Djet Ahaneith, pleasure to meet you Bonnie Sheila Bennett."_

_It wasn't until then that Bonnie resigned herself to her fate and took Kirisi by the hand. _

_She was led from the beach back to the bustling city where the compacted cobblestone streets reminded her of ancient Persia. Every single building they passed was ornate in design with gold crown molding on beige stone. _

_In this quadrant was the marketplace Kirisi explained amid the haggling over brightly colored beads, sandals, and yards of silk, chiffon, and other shimmering fabric Bonnie had never seen. _

_Those who watched them pass, Bonnie noticed, bowed reverently in front of Kirisi as if she were royalty. They gawked at the newcomer curiously, which made Bonnie self-conscious. But she was thankful her skin tight jeans, halter top and jacket had been exchanged for a flowing gown of gossamer dark purple silk so she fit in with the masses better._

"_They are survivors of war," Kirisi explained. "They've been given sanctuary here because their worlds, their homes, everything was destroyed by enmity or world breakers."_

_Bonnie's steps slowed when she saw a horse only it was as tall as an African Bush elephant. If there ever were a visual of the Trojan horse, this creature was it. It stood stoically. Its sleek black coat glinted in the sunlight. Her eyes were in danger of popping out of their sockets and nearly catapulted out of her skull when Bonnie saw a woman moving through the horde who skittered out of the way or lest be crushed. The woman, if Bonnie had to guess may have stood anywhere between fifteen to nineteen feet in height. _

"_Ohmygod," Bonnie breathed. _

_Kirisi turned to face her. She smirked._

_The giant woman headed over to the horse and ran a hand along the animal's spine before patting its rump. There was no saddle on the horse, but the woman tossed a leather scabbard over its shoulders and mounted her steed. _

"_Good morrow, Kirisi," the woman greeted._

_In return, Kirisi bowed her head. "Zephaniah. How are the boarders today?"_

"_Safe and sound, my lady. Who is she?"_

_Kirisi gestured to a stunned Bonnie. "An heir."_

_Zephaniah's head tilted to the side as she took Bonnie's measure. "She does remind me of the old Empress. Welcome," she addressed Bonnie. "Well, I'm off," the woman said and kicked the horse into gear that reared, charged down the street, and disappeared completely from sight._

_Bonnie, bewildered searched all around trying to locate where the woman and horse had gone and saw no sign of them. "What the hell did I just see?"_

"_A Dominion on patrol," Kirsi filled in._

"_She's naturally that tall or?" _

"_She can manipulate her height and density to fit specific needs. Come."_

"_Wait," Bonnie waved her hands back and forth in the air. _

"_I know you're confused and you will have every last one of your questions answered, but not here," Kirisi covertly looked around. _

_Kirisi began walking again and Bonnie fell in step behind her muttering to herself, "Grams what have you gotten me into?"_

* * *

**Westwego, LA**

"What are you going to do?" Elijah surveyed the scene carefully. Hayley's condition seemed to have deteriorated in the last twenty-four hours.

"Draw energy out of her," Bonnie replied. "I'm thinking she absorbed some of my power when I went nuclear. That's why she's kind of in a coma state."

Damon interjected clinically, "Right now it's systematically overwhelming this chick's organs. Her body has only been able to hold on for this long since she's supernatural. If she were human…she would have died instantly. The heat from Bonnie's power alone would have cooked her from the inside out."

The enormity of that sunk into Elijah's brain.

"Whatever you have to do just get on with it," Rebekah inserted.

Bonnie stilled and tilted her head to the side as she regarded the blonde Original.

There was something in that look—a warning Rebekah's intuition picked up on which caused her to gulp and straighten her spine. She had already been blindsided with the revelation that not only was Bonnie alive but so was Damon. For a second, fear prickled along Rebekah's skin because she wondered if her mother and father had come back from the dead as well.

"Rebekah," Elijah shook his head back and forth at his sister. "Let her handle this."

Bonnie was facing the weight of the dilemma right this very second. She stared down at the ashen female lying motionless in the middle of a hospital bed. Since coming back to Earth Bonnie had done belief-defying things, but she had done those things on an unconscious level under duress. Now here she stood knowing she could help this woman but had no clue on where to start.

She was not a witch, a saint, a healer, but a warrior. Her abilities came and went like shifting tides, but her power was ever present. How was she going to undo what she did?

"Something the matter, Bons?" Damon muttered knowingly.

"No," she quickly refuted.

"You sure?"

Bonnie didn't need to see Damon's face to know he had one eyebrow raised to his hairline, face full of cunning.

"Yes," Bonnie sat down on the edge of the bed and grabbed Hayley's hand. It was ice cold and limp.

Elijah shuffled closer for a better view. Damon kept his attention on him pondering what he was thinking, who he was more concerned about.

Bonnie closed her eyes. Kept them closed and tightened her grasp on Hayley's hand. Trying to make some kind of internal form of contact. Latch on to a flicker of the woman's life force. Nothing happened. Nothing was happening.

She sighed. "I thought…it's not working."

"Try again," Elijah prompted encouragingly. "You were once a powerful witch and I believe that part of you is still within. Just buried. Try to find it."

"Go back to the source, Bonnie. Listen to the sound of your breathing…hers…make a connection," Damon coached.

Elijah pulled his lips back from his teeth. Certainly didn't appreciate his advice being superseded.

The last time he shared space with Bonnie and Damon had been the night of the ritual where Klaus broke his curse. He had paid their interaction little to no mind since his mind had been fixed on that triumphant moment of ending his brother. Damon and Bonnie had been a team working against time. This go around there was symmetry between them Elijah could admit was off-putting. They were damn near finishing each other's sentences.

Rebekah interjected, "How bout the both of you shut up and let her concentrate."

Elijah sunk his hands deeper into his trouser pockets. "Believe me sister, I have no interest in quarreling with a rodent."

Damon pushed away from the wall he had been holding up. "Rodent?" he now stood in Elijah's face. "Do you know what I can do to you, homeboy?"

"What exactly did you have in mind, Damon? Please refresh my memory since I recall my hand being wrapped around your throat with my pen protruding from your neck not two hours ago."

"Ah…" Rebekah stuttered but her attention was locked on Bonnie.

She had tuned out of their bickering to start siphoning her cosmic energy out of Hayley. Sweat dotted Bonnie's hairline; a fat vein lacerated the middle of her forehead.

A confident smile graced Damon's features. "Don't go getting too big for your britches, _Eli_. I'd hate to have to hurt your feelings and tell you I threw the fight to spare you further embarrassment. You don't know what I'm capable of and if you're lucky or smart you won't ever have to find out," without looking away from the fuming individual in front of him, Damon said, "Bonnie. Happy place. Go there. Now."

No response.

"Bonnie?"

She stared blankly at the wall behind the hospital bed. Wobbled and began to fall sideways off the bed. A thin line of blood trickled from her nose.

Elijah and Damon both dove for her at the same time and ended up head butting one another, stunning the other for a second.

"I have her," Damon grunted.

"No, I _have _her," Elijah reached for Bonnie's arm.

Rebekah tossed both hands in the air. "You two are absolutely ridiculous! She's not a fucking toy."

The Original and Herald stopped their squabbling long enough to throw displeased glares at Rebekah. "I know that," they voiced unilaterally.

Snorting, Rebekah tightened her arms over her chest. "Great. Now we have another unconscious woman on our hands. Who's going to fix Bonnie so that she can fix Hayley and I can get on with my life?"

"She needs her rest," Damon asserted and wrestled Bonnie away from Elijah and hoisted her up bridal style. "She's been exhausting herself so therefore she won't be _fixing _any gotdamn body because I'm taking her home. Back to Virginia," he carefully enunciated in case the millennials were hard of hearing.

As soon as Damon turned for the door of the small medical clinic Elijah was there barring the way.

"Don't make me kick you in the nuts, man," Damon glowered.

"Bonnie promised she would do all she could to reverse what she did to Hayley. I know her well enough to know she'd never agree to leaving without trying once more. You know that about her as well, Damon. But if you wish to feel her wrath," Elijah slid out of the way, "then you're free to go."

Damon's nostrils flared. He looked at Bonnie passed out in his arms. The shit she got him into.

* * *

Wide awake Bonnie sat up and gripped the side of her neck. She swung her legs over the edge of the bed, and peered through the slates in the wooden blinds at the flickers of sunlight.

She felt like crap. The excitement from last night and trying to help Hayley drained her and left her lethargic. Bonnie stumbled her way to the connecting bathroom where she relieved her bladder and washed the horrid taste of cotton from her mouth.

Vaguely she was aware of the fact she was back at Elijah's with little to no memory on how she made it there. She didn't have the brain capacity to question the logistics of it, nor how she came to be dressed in a tank top and shorts. For once she was just going to go with the flow. More than likely Damon was probably responsible for her wardrobe change.

Damon! The thought of him jolted her but then Bonnie was exhausted once more. He was safe. _They _were safe.

Bonnie tripped downstairs. Her body needed glucose and lots of it and water as well.

She expected to find an empty kitchen but received a second jolt this morning.

Elijah stood with his back to her—his naked back, wearing a pair of dark denim jeans. She could tell he was fresh out of the shower, his wet and spiky hair being an indication of that. Bonnie couldn't help where her eyes landed. On his sinewy muscles that moved with feline grace each time he reached for something. On that sleek line coursing down the center of his back that tapered off to the two dimples right above the cusp of his ass.

Unconsciously, Bonnie gouged her lip with her teeth.

He turned around once sensing her presence. A five o'clock shadow christened his face, and those chestnut eyes of his were assessing her delicately. Shrewdly.

"Good morning, Bonnie."

"Good morning, Elijah. Where's…"

"Upstairs," Elijah listened intently. "Humming in the shower."

Bonnie nodded and ushered in awkwardness with welcome arms. A beep sounded and she looked toward the source of the noise mostly as a distraction.

Elijah removed a black mug from the microwave and sipped from it generously. Bonnie resisted by the skin of her teeth not to wrinkle her nose. She didn't think he was drinking tea or coffee.

"I'm sorry," she cleared the frog out of her throat. "I'm sorry I wasn't much help to Hayley last night. I don't know what went wrong."

The Original nodded but made no comment.

Bonnie fidgeted on her bare feet and hated she was being so self-conscious right now. She marched forward in spite of her discomfort, and strolled to the center island.

"I haven't gotten the chance to thank you for looking out for me these last couple of days."

Elijah sat the piping hot mug down on the granite surface of the island. "No thanks are needed. You've done more for my family than what any of us deserved."

Of course that admission prompted a confused expression from Bonnie. "What do you mean?"

"We don't need to get into that right now. Plus I'm sure your _herald_ will fill in any missing blanks with some colorful additives as well." Pause. "I must apologize for my coarse behavior with you last night. I was directing my anger at the wrong person."

"Apology accepted."

"You trust him? Damon?"

"Without question."

"I would love nothing more than to sully Damon's character, but I've seen the change in him. I can only attribute that change to whatever the two of you have gone through. He didn't want to take sanctuary here and I don't blame him for it."

"So why are we here?"

"I insisted as a show of good faith. But mainly to thwart off any attacks by overzealous supes who want to prove they are formidable enough to join my family's organization; by taking you and Damon out had you found lodgings in the quarter."

Bonnie nodded. "Thank you, Elijah."

He flashed a here and gone smile. "My reason for wanting you to remain under my roof, under my care…they aren't a hundred percent…innocent."

The two major arteries in the Dominion's neck began to pound while her already exceedingly dry throat became ash.

"No?" Bonnie croaked.

"No," Elijah parroted and then backed off. "Don't be a stranger. Help yourself to whatever you need," he waved a hand around the kitchen.

Bonnie's head spun for a moment at the abrupt change in conversation. She had detected a different kind of hunger from Elijah that wasn't dissimilar from the hunger for food. Bonnie trotted over to the fridge and pulled out staples she was familiar with.

They moved about the kitchen avoiding any inopportune collisions. Never sharing the same space for longer than mere seconds. Bonnie found a colander and tossed strawberries, cranberries, and grapes inside. Sticking it under the faucet, she turned it on and washed off any lingering dirt or insecticides.

Elijah feigned reading the paper and said, "Have you ever been on a riverboat?"

The question made Bonnie blink. "No, have you?"

Smiling, Elijah nodded in the affirmative. "I actually lived on one for a few months back in the late 1800's. They're floating casinos really and it just occurred to me that I need to make an impromptu visit to one I have co-ownership of."

Bonnie didn't make a sound or inquiry. Was Elijah in a roundabout way trying to ask her if she wanted to go, or was he simply trying to fill the slightly uncomfortable silence with chitchat? He didn't seem like the kind to hold idle conversations. She peered at him over her shoulder. His back was to her so she couldn't see his face—had no idea what he was thinking.

He had to be aware of the fact her time in New Orleans was running out. Bonnie would try to stall. Damon wouldn't be happy about postponing their evacuation. But if returning to Virginia was that important to him, he could very well head back there on his own. Bonnie still wasn't sold on the idea that heading there was the right step to take.

Bonnie shut off the water and then turned around to face Elijah. "Are you trying to ask me out on a date?"

Elijah looked up from the paper and pivoted toward Bonnie. Though her face was blank the Original could see mirth dancing in her eyes.

"Maybe," he hedged and started a slow, calculated gait toward Bonnie. "Maybe I want a do over from last night."

Excitement with a dash of apprehensive pinched Bonnie's nerves. Elijah now crowded her space and she dug her backside into the edge of the counter for some added room.

"Our…night had been interrupted," Bonnie swallowed, "if it hadn't…how would it have ended?"

Elijah was so glad she asked that question. It had been a constant rumination on his mind as he undressed for bed last night feeling…uncharacteristically lonely. He had guests under his roof—one he rather just destroy while the other if circumstances were different would have invited back to his bed. Elijah braced both hands on the lip of the counter, boxing Bonnie in. He stared directly into her irises, noting the spindles of different shades of green infused with gold and hazel around her dilating pupils.

Bonnie couldn't remember the last time anyone stood so close to her and stared at her with such heat. Bells sounded which she ignored in favor of seeing where this particular road would lead. Something told her she never really took risks when it came to male-female relations.

"I would have escorted you upstairs," Elijah launched into describing his fail proof seduction technique. "I would have listened to your heart speed as its doing now."—Bonnie blushed profusely and lowered her gaze to Elijah's chest which was not the right place to look at a time like this—"And I would have told you what an honor it was to have one of the most stunningly beautiful women to keep me company for the night."

Bonnie stared up at Elijah once more. "What else?"

A corner of his lips curved upward. "I, of course, would have leaned in like this," and Elijah demonstrated by inching closer to where every time Bonnie breathed her breath fanned against his chest. "And I'd put my lips where I wanted them to be all night."

Elijah cupped Bonnie's cheek, titled her head up while lowering his and dropped a kiss to her chin. Purposely missing his intended target. She giggled nervously, but the sound was soon cut off when another kiss was planted right under her jawline on top of her fluttering pulse. His lips were cool and his blunt teeth lightly scraped across her skin.

Bonnie's palms began to burn but she didn't know what to do with them. They remained stiff at her sides.

The Original drew back to gauge Bonnie's response to his ministrations. She appeared dazed and drowsy. He had her right where he wanted her. So when he made the decision to slant his mouth over hers, and Bonnie closed her eyes in anticipation, every nerve ending preparing to shout Hallelujah…

Elijah teased her, ghosting his bottom lip across her top but not connecting their mouths.

Bonnie's hands clasped the waistline of his jeans, "Stop it," she whispered. "Stop playing…"

Her protestation that he cease messing with her was cut off when Elijah flicked the tip his tongue right under the hood of Bonnie's lower lip.

Elijah figured it was the right time to put them both out of their curiosity, but then he caught movement to his left.

Like a vacuum, all the air left the kitchen.

Damon stood in the threshold—shirtless and wearing a pair of black jeans that hung low. "Oh, am I cock blocking? _Good_."

Bonnie, startled lightly pushed Elijah away—cheeks heating up while his back molars ground on top of one another.

Damon held up both hands as he sauntered into the kitchen, "Please, don't stop on my account."

Thoroughly embarrassed Bonnie maneuvered around Elijah and headed for the exit, avoiding eye contact with Damon. She could smell his disapproval from a mile away.

"I'm going to take a shower," she muttered.

"Make sure it's a cold one," Damon advised.

The older vampire didn't speak until he was assured Bonnie was upstairs. "Tell me something, Damon, when you return to Mystic Falls will you be attached to Bonnie's hip as you are now? Or do you have plans to resume the sad little life you had been living fighting your brother over a woman's love?"

Damon's only reply was pivoting in his boots, "Don't play games with my charge, Elijah. Bonnie is not here to stay."

* * *

**Another world…**

"I've searched the whole of the city and found no trace of her, my lord. It would appear they aren't purposely being dishonest on her whereabouts. But they have been grossly negligent in allowing her to fall."

Gannicus studied the miniature painting in his hand. "She was from Earth," he said almost distractedly. "I believe that's a good place for us to commence our next search for her."

"But you know the law, my lord…what will happen if any of us were to leave this realm. We would cease being who we are. Even if she is found…what will she be? Her powers are too strong for a weak galaxy like the one she's from to sustain her."

"_And that is exactly why she needs to be recovered!"_ Gannicus roared and the Parthenon rumbled. He took a breath and lowered his voice. "There is a loophole…are we need to do is find it. Gaius..." the world breaker traipsed over his younger brother who was just as large as he was and braced his hands on his shoulders. "The Prime Creator has not made a world breaker in over sixty-five hundred years. We're a dying breed. With Bonnie…we can turn things back into our favor. She does not belong with Dominions.

"I saw it in her. A fury that cannot simply be satisfied by breaking up skirmishes between dark things who know their place is under our boots. Avitus agreed to it and he has no choice but to live up to his words. Besides, he never wanted her there because he saw the truth of it in her eyes."

"The truth of what?"

Gannicus grinned and said no more. Why spoil the mystery?

Chapter end.

**A/N: I'm sure you have lots of questions like: what is this House of Aziza thing, why couldn't Bonnie reverse Hayley's condition, what did Gannicus and Avitus see in Bonnie, how much longer will Bamon remain in Nawlins? Answers are sure to follow. Thanks for reading and leaving your thoughts behind. Love you!**


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